system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why can drinking too much alcohol cause you to go blind and what is the biology/chemistry behind it? Is it specifically because you absorb too much too quickly (like with moonshine/liquor/spirits), or is there something else that causes it?
gpt
Drinkable alcohol is ethanol; it's what in the beer and spirits you buy at your liquor store. Moonshine that isn't distilled correctly builds methanol which the body metabolizes into formaldehyte (which is toxic) and then further into formic acid which will harm your nervous system, beginning with the eyes (causing blindness).