Doctors have warned against a new trend where young drinkers inhale their liquor in an effort to gain a greater buzz for fewer calories, by either pouring it over dry ice or 'freebasing' it and sucking up the vapors.
Either way, going around the stomach and liver is incredibly risky, doctors said.
Inhaling alcohol is an insidious trend, particularly among college students who may be looking for more extreme ways to get high, Dr. Harris Stratyner, regional clinical vice president of Caron Treatment Centers in New York said.
He has also seen it gain popularity among college-age men and women who may restrict calories before a night of partying - what's popularly known as "drunkorexia."
Whether it's "smoked" using dry ice or inhaled as a vapor, consuming alcohol in this way is "unbelievably dangerous," Stratyner said.
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"When you inhale alcohol, it goes directly into the lungs and circumnavigates the liver," he told the New York Daily News.
"The liver is what metabolizes alcohol, but when you inhale it, it goes directly from the lungs to the brain," he said.
The lungs and mucous membranes are extremely sensitive to alcohol, Stratyner said, and inhaling alcoholic vapor may dry out the nasal passages and mouth, leaving users more vulnerable to infection.
Additionally, inhaling alcohol can lead to deadly alcohol poisoning more readily than sipping your drink.
