Alcohol Does Not Kill Brain Cells

8/7/2019 Alcohol Does Not Kill Brain Cells

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Alcohol Does Not Kill Brain Cells

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Now, to qualify that title, pure alcoholwill absolutely kill brain cells and many other types of cells, which is why it is used as a

disinfectant. However, recent research has shown that the quantity of alcohol you couldpossibly take in, without killing yourself, does not introduce enough alcohol into your

bloodstream to kill brain cells. This was proven by a study by Grethe Jensen and co. (1993),who meticulously counted neurons in matched samples of non-alcoholics and alcoholics.

What they found was that there was no real difference in the density or overall number of

neurons between the two groups. Various other research since has backed up Jensens

findings. Thus, even alcoholics who are continually taking in unhealthy amounts of alcohol

arent going to see brain cells die because of their drinking problem. However, alcohol does

have other effects on the brain, both positive and negative, that have nothing to do with brain

cells dying.

First, the positive: drinking moderate amounts of alcohol on a regular basis has been shownto have various positive effects on your body. The one that pertains to this articles topic is

that it has been shown to help protect people from cognitive impairment as they age.

According to a study done at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, in Italy, 29% ofpeople 65 years or older who almost never drank alcohol throughout their life had mental

impairment issues. On the flip-side of that, only about 19% of people 65 years or older who

drank moderate amounts of alcohol regularly had any mental impairment. It was further

discovered that, among the various groups where other problems, such as health problems or

the like, might impair them mentally, the same trend appeared. In every group, those who

drank moderately on a regular basis throughout their lives always had a diminished chance of

becoming mentally impaired in their old age compared to those who didnt drink at all or

almost never drank.


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Now for the negative (theres a lot when it comes to intemperate alcohol consumption, so Illonly cover a few): while brain cells arent being killed as the result of drinking excessive

amounts of alcohol, the ability for your brain cells to communicate with one another is beinginhibited. Whats going on here is that the alcohol ends up damaging dendrites, which are the

things at the ends of neurons that conduct electrochemical stimulation from another cell to the

cell body in question. Basically, with some of these dendrites damaged, it inhibits the ability

of your brain cells to talk to one another.

Luckily, you have an amazing number of connections and neurons in your brain (about 100

billion neurons, along with 10s of billions of glial cells, which support the neurons). So this

helps mask the problem. Also, even among long time alcoholics, it has been shown that

simply quitting drinking copious amounts of alcohol is all that is required for your body to be

able to reverse most of the damage to the dendrites and restore the ability for your brain cells

to communicate. So you can afford to damage some of the neurons temporarily without any

real lasting effect.

Unfortunately, for the people who have an extreme habit of excessively drinking, there are

other side effects on your brain that arent so easily completely fixed, such as developing

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which is characterized by: confusion, coordination problems,hallucinations, memory problems, eye problems, and even inducing a coma or death, if its

left untreated. Whats going on here is that excessive alcohol consumption over a long periodof time causes a vitamin B1 deficiency (8 out of 10 alcoholics are vitamin B1 deficient), due

to the alcohol inhibiting the bodys ability to absorb thiamine (also many alcoholics are oftenmalnourished because of their own bad eating habits). This, in turn, causes neuron death,

among other things. This is treatable, in most cases, but certain effects stick around foreveras your body wont be able to repair itself completely from this particular brand of damage.

Another brain-related side effect caused by excessive drinking is that high doses of alcohol,

while not killing your brain cells, inhibits the growth of new brain cells. However, recent

research has shown, at least with rats, that once the alcohol was no longer given to the rats,new brain cell production went into overdrive to try to compensate for the previously

inhibited brain cell production. Now, if you go for long enough without giving your brain achance to recover, drinking excessively on a regular basis, it is thought there may still be

lasting effects due to this inhibited new brain cell growth over extended periods, but whetherthis is actually the case or not, isnt yet known.

There are also a variety of other known neurological problems that are associated with

intemperate alcohol consumptions over long periods of time and some that even show up in a

short amount of time in children and teens who abuse alcohol, but this article is already too

long. Then of course, there are the myriad of other problems, non-brain related that come

with alcoholism, such as liver problems, other nervous system problems outside of how it

affects your brain, and others.

Bottom line, alcohol consumed in moderation, such as a small glass of wine a day, can be

very good for you. On the other hand, drinking excessively wont kill you brain cellsdirectly, but is still bad for your brain. Although, your body can compensate, to a certain

extent, and repair the damage caused in most cases, at least as far as your brain is concerned,so long as you dont make a regular habit of it.

Bonus Factoids:


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y Another myth concerning alcohol that was once spread about, particularly duringProhibition, but to which I dont think anyone actually believes anymore (at least I

hope not!), is that drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to spontaneouscombustion due to alcohol being flammable and it coursing through your veins. This

is ridiculous on many levels, but nevertheless, was a popular notion during

Prohibition and for a while afterwards. The myth that alcohol kills brain cells was

also widely popularized during Prohibition.y There are several things that contribute to hangovers, but principally whats going on

here is simple dehydration. Alcohol has a dehydrating effect by inhibiting the release

of vasopressin, which is an anti-diuretic hormone. So in laymans terms, the result of

alcohol inhibiting the vasopressin is that your body produces a lot more urine than

normal with the result that you become dehydrated easily.

y Scientists once believed that the number of nerve cells you have in your brain, onceyou reach adulthood, was all youd ever have. Thus, damaging these cells could be

extremely detrimental to the individual. However, this isnt correct. New neurons are

created all the time in the adult brain, in a process that is called neurogenesis.

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Alcohol Does Not Kill Brain Cells