Don't Pump Booze Up Your Butt!

Helpful advice from CNN.

News of students at the University of Tennessee using "alcohol enemas" to get drunk prompted a slew of comments from CNN readers in disbelief.

"When I was in college we just did funnels and kegstands," said commenter LogicBomb101.

"Is there a 12-step program for that?" FootnoteFad asked.

But alcohol enemas are no laughing matter, experts say. One of the Tennessee students was taken to the hospital with a blood alcohol level of 0.40, officials said. That's five times the legal limit and in what doctors call the "death zone" for alcohol poisoning.

Using an alcohol enema involves placing a small tube into someone's rectum and pouring alcohol into the colon. Because the alcohol is absorbed directly into the bloodstream, the recipient gets drunk faster.

Our stomachs and livers have an enzyme known as alcohol dehydrogenase that breaks down ethanol to make it less toxic for our bodies, said Atlanta gastroenterologist Dr. Preston Stewart. The lower gastrointestinal tract doesn't have that enzyme, so alcohol molecules are absorbed into the bloodstream through the lining of the colon.