People who undergo gastric bypass surgery get drunk quicker and take longer to get sober, according to a US study published Thursday.
The study conducted by researchers at Stanford University found that the procedure, which is increasingly common in the fight against obesity, heightened the effects of alcohol.
The research was inspired by US talk show host Oprah Winfrey, said John Morton, assistant professor of surgery at Stanford, who has performed more than 1,000 gastric bypass surgeries.
Morton appeared on Winfrey's show last year to discuss the surgery's effects and heard an overwhelming concern among the audience about alcohol.
"I've heard the anecdotes of a patient who will drink one glass of wine and get a DUI (drunk driving arrest), but I wanted to know if there is really a difference before and after surgery," Morton said.
To measure alcohol's effects, researchers gave 19 post-operative gastric bypass patients and 17 people who had not had the surgery five ounces each of red wine. They all drank the wine within 15 minutes.
Each subject then had their breath-alcohol level measured every five minutes until levels reached zero.
The gastric bypass patients reached a breath-alcohol peak of 0.08 percent compared to the control group's peak breath-alcohol level of 0.05 percent
It is a crime to drive with a blood alcohol level at or above 0.08 percent in the United States.
The bypass patients also took longer to return to zero breath-alcohol level, averaging 108 minutes compared to 72 minutes for the control group.
The surgery, which reduces the stomach to the size of a walnut, also alters the way alcohol is metabolised according to the study, being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.
About 150,000 Americans a year undergo gastric bypass surgery, which can be a lifesaving procedure for morbidly obese people who are 100 pounds or more overweight.
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