Does Alcohol Kill You Brain Cells?

Does Alcohol Kill You Brain Cells?

Everyone at some point in their lives has heard that drinking alcohol kills your brain cells even if you are not of the legal age yet. In reality this has always been a myth. This came to be a fact after the United States decided to prohibit alcohol and it could be seen that people’s motor skills were slower after a certain time so slurring was common as well as movement was really slow.

The fact is that moderate alcohol consumption does not kill brain cells however a large consumption can create damage to the brain but it is not due to the fact that the cells are dying. What ends up happening to an alcoholic is that the alcohol has damage the dendrites which look like tree branches. They are located specifically towards the end of brain cell. These branches allow for messages to be passed. Once the dendrites have been damage it makes it difficult for the person to remember certain memories. According to studies done by the University of Buffalo the effects the alcohol had on the dendrites is totally reversible. This can be done through the process of quitting the consumption so that the damage is reversed to the dendrites since they have the ability to restore themselves. Even though, it does not kill your brain cells it is important to remember that it still does damage some important organs such as your liver.

Research has been conducted by Washington University in St. Louis in where alcohol was directly applied to a cell. This experiment proved that the cells do not die because of just this substance. What was being affected was just the transition of information from one neuron to the next. Alcohol was then proven to then allow for steroids to be released which hinder how the memory was being formed.

It also known that alcoholics can develop a neurological disorder called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This causes the person to have lost neurons within the brain. As a consequence, amnesia and other memory and motor skills are highly affected to which there is no way of gaining such things back. In some cases this has led to deaths. What needs to be made clear is that alcohol itself is not what causes this disorder. When people get to the stage of alcoholics the only thing they want to do is drink. It has become an addiction. Most alcoholics will then not eat and will just feed their body alcohol. As a result, the body becomes deficient in vitamin B specifically thiamine. Which has led to these deaths. So next time be careful in the amounts of alcohol that you drink and stay safe for we only have one body.

 here is a summary video of this topic: http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

 

Work Cited:

http://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/brain-facts-myths/brain-mythology/brain-myth-alcohol-kills-brain-cells

http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/10-brain-myths9.htm

 

 

8 thoughts on “Does Alcohol Kill You Brain Cells?

  1. Jinghao Zhang

    I Just read a article about alcohol recently. it is saying that Teens more attampt to binge if parents let them sip the brew. Such early taste about dad’s Vodka or mom’s Merlot may effect further alcohol abuse for a kid. it was a study done by Brown University, which was very shocking to me. Great topic selection, it was really catchy!

  2. Maxim Cenziper Myers

    I enjoyed reading this blog because I can absolutely agree and understand the material in this blog. My motto for ever has been that “moderation is key”. I believe that most anything in excess isn’t healthy or good for you so I enjoyed reading this post specifically about alcohol consumption and it’s effect on the brain. It’s not mystery that we all have all witnessed someone who hasn’t remembered things from the previous night, therefore having some kind of effect on the brain. This blog post definitely puts into perspective how deadly alcohol consumption can truly be which is why I’m glad you posted this on a blog with tons of incoming freshman. Nice post!

  3. Taylor Harrington

    Loved how this was like a myth busters episode! You presented a myth and then proved it wrong. This reminds me of the whole thing we talked about in class today about people believing that bleeding out was helping for 2,000+ years. Doctors were wrong for so long until somebody finally did a study on it and proved them wrong. There was this myth/theory connecting brain cells and alcohol that was proposed (When? I don’t know, but that would be interesting to investigate) and now it was proved wrong. Very relevant topic to investigate after today’s discussion!!

  4. David Jonathan Correll

    The blog you posted helped my understanding of why people contribute alcohol to people losing intelligence. I just never knew the full in-depth look at why this was an occurrence. All your facts are true of how the body is effected by alcohol. I also like how there is a mass amount of sources you used to backup your evidence. The sources and word choice made the blog interesting to read.

  5. David Jonathan Correll

    The blog you posted helped my understanding of why people contribute alcohol to people losing intelligence. I just never knew the full in-depth look at why this was an occurrence. All your facts are true of how the body is effected by alcohol. I also like how there is a mass amount of sources you used to backup your evidence. The sources and word choice made the blog interesting to read.

  6. David Jonathan Correll

    The blog you posted helped my understanding of why people contribute alcohol to people losing intelligence. I just never knew the full in-depth look at why this was an occurrence. All your facts are true of how the body is effected by alcohol. I also like how there is a mass amount of sources you used to backup your evidence. The sources and word choice made the blog interesting to read.

  7. David Jonathan Correll

    The blog you posted helped my understanding of why people contribute alcohol to people losing intelligence. I just never knew the full in-depth look at why this was an occurrence. All your facts are true of how the body is effected by alcohol. I also like how there is a mass amount of sources you used to backup your evidence. The sources and word choice made the blog interesting to read.

  8. Ka Kit Chin

    This blog makes a lot of sense. I think drinking alcohol will do a lot of damages to the brain. Let me just give some specific reasons for why drinking alcohol would cause damages to the brain. First, after drinking alcohol, people would do lots of stupid things and they would not remember what they had done after they drunk, like the temporary memory loss. Second, people will suffer from bodies uncomfortable in the second days after they get drunk. Third, people will feel headache in the second day, the headache is the sign of the damage to the brain.

Comments are closed.

Does Alcohol Kill You Brain Cells?

Everyone at some point in their lives has heard that drinking alcohol kills your brain cells even if you are not of the legal age yet. In reality this has always been a myth. This came to be a fact after the United States decided to prohibit alcohol and it could be seen that people’s motor skills were slower after a certain time so slurring was common as well as movement was really slow.

The fact is that moderate alcohol consumption does not kill brain cells however a large consumption can create damage to the brain but it is not due to the fact that the cells are dying. What ends up happening to an alcoholic is that the alcohol has damage the dendrites which look like tree branches. They are located specifically towards the end of brain cell. These branches allow for messages to be passed. Once the dendrites have been damage it makes it difficult for the person to remember certain memories. According to studies done by the University of Buffalo the effects the alcohol had on the dendrites is totally reversible. This can be done through the process of quitting the consumption so that the damage is reversed to the dendrites since they have the ability to restore themselves. Even though, it does not kill your brain cells it is important to remember that it still does damage some important organs such as your liver.

Research has been conducted by Washington University in St. Louis in where alcohol was directly applied to a cell. This experiment proved that the cells do not die because of just this substance. What was being affected was just the transition of information from one neuron to the next. Alcohol was then proven to then allow for steroids to be released which hinder how the memory was being formed.

It also known that alcoholics can develop a neurological disorder called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This causes the person to have lost neurons within the brain. As a consequence, amnesia and other memory and motor skills are highly affected to which there is no way of gaining such things back. In some cases this has led to deaths. What needs to be made clear is that alcohol itself is not what causes this disorder. When people get to the stage of alcoholics the only thing they want to do is drink. It has become an addiction. Most alcoholics will then not eat and will just feed their body alcohol. As a result, the body becomes deficient in vitamin B specifically thiamine. Which has led to these deaths. So next time be careful in the amounts of alcohol that you drink and stay safe for we only have one body.

here is a summary about the topic: http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

 

:liquor

Work Cited:

http://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/brain-facts-myths/brain-mythology/brain-myth-alcohol-kills-brain-cells

http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/10-brain-myths9.htm