An otherwise fit, healthy woman has died after drinking on an empty stomach

People often say you should never drink on an empty stomach. In most cases, it can make you get drunk quicker and you can wake up with a hangover. But there can sometimes be far more dangerous consequences. This has been highlighted by the news a healthy young woman, has sadly died from drinking on an empty stomach.

Alice Burton Bradford, 27 years old, from Brighton, died in her garden in June, having suffered a rare metabolic reaction. This was caused by consuming alcohol without having something to eat first. Tragically, Miss Bradford did not have a drinking problem and prided herself on keeping fit. She enjoyed running and cycling and even competed in races, sharing her experiences on social media. Miss Bradford, who previously worked in a bar, was called a health fanatic by friends and was good fun, loved music, going to festivals and appreciated the natural world.

No drinking problem

An athlete in the prime of her life, her friends maintain she did not have a drinking problem. So, how could she have died just because she had something to drink without eating?

An inquest into her death is due to be carried out in due course, but, unfortunately, due to coronavirus restrictions, only a limited number were able to attend the funeral. Therefore, a close friend has set up a crowdfunding page to put up a bench in her memory.

Alcoholic metabolic condition

Miss Bradford’s heart-breaking death has led to calls for increased awareness of alcoholic ketoacidosis, a metabolic complication which many in the public may not have even heard of.

You can suffer from Ketoacidosis if you eat something which turns to acid while being digested. However, you could experience Alcoholic ketoacidosis if consuming large amounts, either from binge drinking or when struggling with an addiction.

Drinking can cause your body to stop creating insulin, preventing it from using glucose for energy. This means the body must burn fat to create something known as ketone bodies. The higher rate of fat you burn up, the greater number of ketone bodies travel through the bloodstream, and if you have large quantities of ketones in your blood, it can bring about ketoacidosis. This can potentially result in a wide range of symptoms; from restricted movement, nausea to abdominal pain and vomiting. It is possible to treat less severe cases with nutrients and vitamins, but it is not unheard of for the condition to be hazardous to your health or even fatal.

Unfortunately, in Miss Bradford’s case, drinking on an empty stomach brought on a case of alcoholic ketoacidosis, which cost her life. A sad, timely reminder of how, on exceedingly rare occasions, there can be tragic, unforeseen consequences to consuming alcohol. Perhaps this should give us all pause to think.

Source: Daily Mail