How bad does alcohol damage the brain?

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ch0sen1

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I drink almost every weekend now (started drinking last year). How badly will it effect my brain if I continue. I am a pretty good student, work hard, volunteer, all the good stuff. I have been feeling like I forget things that I usually would have never forgotten, but its usually nothing important.

Has anybody else been feeling different since they started drinking, and how bad does this effect the brain?
 
beer is good, it are go good with pizza

seriously though, i highly doubt alcohol will ever make you dumb...after its effects wear off of course
 
Badly enough that you can forget the distinction between bad and badly.

Seriously, it will depend on the amount your are drinking. If you are drinking regularly and to the point where you are causing organ damage, neurologic damage will certainly be a part of that.
 
isn't alcoholism related to Korsakoff's syndrome? I may be misremembering since I was drunk at that class...
 
That's "how badly does alcohol damage the brain?"

See? The mindrot is beginning already. In a couple of years you'll have the liver of Dylan Thomas and the gin blossoms of Ernest Hemingway.
 
Given the amount of damage that already has been done to your brain, you probably should become a professor of english literature. Specialize in poetry. Many famous poets are big time boozers.
 
searun said:
Given the amount of damage that already has been done to your brain, you probably should become a professor of english literature. Specialize in poetry. Many famous poets are big time boozers.
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Good call. The short story would work, as well. Cheever was a maniac on the bottle.
 
Stop drinking OP. I don't think the possible brain damage is the issue here. Think about what you are doing to your liver. If you need some visceral examples, go Google some images.
 
Like, really, really, really, really badly dude!

On a serious note, if you are reasonably responsible with your drinking habits, it is completely possible to be incredible successful and accomplished. Look at the people around you: professors, politicians, engineers. A lot of them got trashed in college too. Hell, some of them still get trashed all the time.

However, if you are concerned with preserving the utmost of your intellectual capabilities... well, I think you know the answer to that question already.
 
I think this one depends on the amount consumed. I dont think it is a problem to have a few beers over the weekend. But getting black-out drunk, or even just drunk every weekend would be a problem in my opinion. It seems to me that I'm not as sharp after a "long" weekend for about three or four days. That leaves me feeling sharp on Thursday and Friday, just in time for another round.
 
ch0sen1 said:
I drink almost every weekend now (started drinking last year). How badly will it effect my brain if I continue. I am a pretty good student, work hard, volunteer, all the good stuff. I have been feeling like I forget things that I usually would have never forgotten, but its usually nothing important.

Has anybody else been feeling different since they started drinking, and how bad does this effect the brain?
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You're still able to type this, aren't you?? Check out Winston Churchill ... he did alright.



edit: I am not endorsing frequent alcohol abuse. However, OP ... the definition of an alcoholic is someone who drinks more than 3 alcoholic beverages a day. This is where you'll get your damage - worry about the liver - but your use on weekends, doesn't seem to be detrimental. If it bothers you, don't drink. However, you're probably in the college years right now when drinking is new, exciting, foreign, etc ... I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
OP how much are you drinking? Drinking in moderation (less than 2 for a man and 1 for a woman) can have positive anti-cancer and cardiovascular benefits. If you are exceeding that and binge drinking you should reduce so your liver doesn't die.
 
I wonder if people with PKU go on Diet Coke binges?
 
Stop drinking OP. I don't think the possible brain damage is the issue here. Think about what you are doing to your liver. If you need some visceral examples, go Google some images.
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Livers are for p*ssies.
 
ch0sen1 said:
I drink almost every weekend now (started drinking last year). How badly will it effect my brain if I continue. I am a pretty good student, work hard, volunteer, all the good stuff. I have been feeling like I forget things that I usually would have never forgotten, but its usually nothing important.

Has anybody else been feeling different since they started drinking, and how bad does this effect the brain?
Click to expand...
I think that most of the scientific community agrees that alcohol causes cellular damage/apoptosis in the brain. Neurogenesis is not studied that much, so mostly you are born with generally a fixed number of neurons in your brain. If you think that losing neurons out of the billions you have is not a big deal, then I guess you can just keep getting drunk. I'd usually say that the percentage of alcohol in a drink is important, but if you are getting to the drunk level, all that matters is the percentage in your blood. Therefore, drinking a "mild" drink like beer can be just as bad as drinking vodka.

Anyway, I don't know if there are detailed studies. The risk is up to you. I have heard some claims about loss of myelination with prolonged alcoholism which can cause the slowness of thought associated with many alcoholics. And while some famous artists or politicians have been drinking a lot, these are not good examples or a green light for you. They are not the brightest to begin with. I have yet to learn about a single successful scientist-alcoholic.If you find one, please share. It's an oxymoron to claim that Shrodinger, Feynman, Gould, Kandel, etc, had a strong liking for a drink. Turgenev or Dostoevski is another matter (in general, stay away from Russian examples; Vodka is Russian for "water" and they do drink it like one).
 
Ha, sorry for my BAD language. English is my second language....damn.

Anyways, yeah I have been drinking quite a bit lately. The liver is pretty large that it takes a person to minimally drink DAILY for 10 years in order for it to do enough damage to the liver to start having problems. I am only worried for memory.

And for people who say that there is no such thing as a scientist-alcoholic...well I know of some doctors (who are family friends) whom I see at family gatherings drinking hard alcohol like they are pure alcoholics...
 
searun said:
Given the amount of damage that already has been done to your brain, you probably should become a professor of english literature. Specialize in poetry. Many famous poets are big time boozers.
Click to expand...

Your telling me that there are no physicians that are big time boozers? Seems like your mind HAS been damaged...
 
Drinking every weekend is not going to do anything. A good rule of thumb is not too drink twice within a 48 hour period. Don't get blackout, or even spins, drunk either. Otherwise, you should be good to go.

If you don't drink often, you won't need as much to get drunk. The beauty in being a light weight is you don't have to get your BAC as high to have fun, which saves your liver, brain cells, and your morning afters.
 
ch0sen1 said:
Your telling me that there are no physicians that are big time boozers? Seems like your mind HAS been damaged...
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Massive doses of alcohol apparently damage the brain's sense of humor.
 
More than 100,000 U.S. deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption each year. Direct and indirect causes of death include drunk driving, cirrhosis of the liver, falls, cancer, and stroke.

Even used responsibly, alcohol will significantly shorten your lifespan.
 
I have yet to learn about a single successful scientist-alcoholic.
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It's estimated the incidence of alcohol/substance abuse is on par, if not higher, for physicians than it is for the general population. Take from that what you will.

Okay then, let me have yours.
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Sure, it's probably already shot to **** anyway.
 
as a "good student" you would be doing a literature search on the topic
 
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Excelsius said:
I think that most of the scientific community agrees that alcohol causes cellular damage/apoptosis in the brain. Neurogenesis is not studied that much, so mostly you are born with generally a fixed number of neurons in your brain. If you think that losing neurons out of the billions you have is not a big deal, then I guess you can just keep getting drunk. I'd usually say that the percentage of alcohol in a drink is important, but if you are getting to the drunk level, all that matters is the percentage in your blood. Therefore, drinking a "mild" drink like beer can be just as bad as drinking vodka.

Anyway, I don't know if there are detailed studies. The risk is up to you. I have heard some claims about loss of myelination with prolonged alcoholism which can cause the slowness of thought associated with many alcoholics. And while some famous artists or politicians have been drinking a lot, these are not good examples or a green light for you. They are not the brightest to begin with. I have yet to learn about a single successful scientist-alcoholic.If you find one, please share. It's an oxymoron to claim that Shrodinger, Feynman, Gould, Kandel, etc, had a strong liking for a drink. Turgenev or Dostoevski is another matter (in general, stay away from Russian examples; Vodka is Russian for "water" and they do drink it like one).
Click to expand...

The issue with drinking alcohol is not neuronal death
The bigger issue is the decrease in neuronal plasticity
and dependence to alcohol because of changes in the neuronal chemistry
the upregulation and downregulation of various neurotransmitters and receptors
all of which make addiction more and more difficult to get out of.
especially since everything is connected
your emotions, your environment, you are at the mercy of what you force your neuronal connections to be.

neurogenesis is not studied that much? this is why the OP needs to stop asking SDN questions and needs to look to more reliable sources such as peer reviewed journals

adult neurogenesis has been a well known occurence since the 1960s ever since Joseph Altman used thiamine autoradiography to track cell genesis and these studies were followed up by many others to confirm neurogenesis. it is a well-known fact that neurogenesis is an active process which begins in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus and in the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles. and that these cells then migrate and differentiate into new neurons.

but in any case.
alcohol does affect your brain in ways that make things difficult to bring back to normal, but neuron death? not unless you're talking nutrient deprivation because alcohol is the only food on the diet
 
eek09 said:
There are hundreds of millions of drunks in our country.
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So you're saying that (at least) a third of our entire population is a drunk?


AtG
 
medhearter said:
You know if you're really a "good student"
you would be doing a literature search on the topic
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Yeah...since your grading me on this assignment right?

Whats wrong with asking a question in the forum? Some of you probably know the answer, why would I spend more time doing research when I can ask such brilliant SDNer's the question? :meanie: Wow, im such a horrible student now.
 
Why does alcohol cause stroke or cancer? Is that known?
 
thedoctor8706 said:
Even used responsibly, alcohol will significantly shorten your lifespan.
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Is there any evidence to support this? The examples you cited were specifically the risks of becoming intoxicated, not of alcohol consumption per se. I thought there was evidence suggesting that long-term consumption of small to moderate amounts of alcohol (i.e. a glass of wine or beer with a meal a few times a week) could have a protective effect against certain heart diseases?
 
ch0sen1 said:
Yeah...since your grading me on this assignment right?

Whats wrong with asking a question in the forum? Some of you probably know the answer, why would I spend more time doing research when I can ask such brilliant SDNer's the question? :meanie: Wow, im such a horrible student now.
Click to expand...

ah.. right some ppl here may be able to give you good answers
some ppl on here might be telling you some really bad ones too
it's all good
like back in the day when people lived in villages and asked each other what lied beyond edge of the woods, and everyone had their answers

who needs to use a university education? who needs to use their fingertips to type into a simple pubmed search form? asking people on a premed forum about the rumours on alcohol's effects on the "brain" is def the time-efficient, and accurate way of going about things.
 
This thread reminds me of the "do cigarettes contain drugs?" one I saw in "social issues" a while ago.
 
thedoctor8706 said:
More than 100,000 U.S. deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption each year. Direct and indirect causes of death include drunk driving, cirrhosis of the liver, falls, cancer, and stroke.

Even used responsibly, alcohol will significantly shorten your lifespan.
Click to expand...

thats an incredibly general statement that is not true at all.


binko said:
Is there any evidence to support this? The examples you cited were specifically the risks of becoming intoxicated, not of alcohol consumption per se. I thought there was evidence suggesting that long-term consumption of small to moderate amounts of alcohol (i.e. a glass of wine or beer with a meal a few times a week) could have a protective effect against certain heart diseases?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is true. theyve shown that consuming alcohol can increase HDL levels, and it also has positive effect on platelet aggregation, which plays a huge role in diseases like atherosclerosis. Theres also been a ton of research on resveratrol, which is the compund found in the skin of grapes, and most importantly, red wine (as well as other foods and plants). You may have heard of the "French Paradox" which talks about the low incidence of heart disease in France despite their diet high in saturated fat. They say its due to the amount of red wine that they consume, which is around 30g a day...Resveratrol works through a number of ways... it effects NO release from endothelial cells, inhibits oxidative stress, has anti-inflammatory activity, suppresses platelet aggregation, etc etc.

now obviousy if you drink alcohol excessivly, any positive benefit it has will be far outweighed by the damage you are doing to the rest of your body.
 
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Lets put it to a test. Ill take an IQ test tommorow and then get drunk for 3 weeks straight and retake that same IQ test. Ill let you know how it goes.
 
ChubbyChaser said:
Lets put it to a test. Ill take an IQ test tommorow and then get drunk for 3 weeks straight and retake that same IQ test. Ill let you know how it goes.
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This is very scientific. Make sure to write it up and put it in your ECs.
 
ChubbyChaser said:
Lets put it to a test. Ill take an IQ test tommorow and then get drunk for 3 weeks straight and retake that same IQ test. Ill let you know how it goes.
Click to expand...


haha, my friend is in a psych class and they did a bunch of surveys regarding alcohol and academics....the only correlation that they found was that the people that drank the most had the highest GPA. These results probably arent very reliable, but still pretty funny.
 
OP, haven't you heard of the "Buffalo Theory"?

Just like the weakest and oldest buffalo are the first to be picked off, when I drink, only my weak and old brain cells are killed, leaving only the strongest, smartest brain cells.

Drinking alcohol, therefore, makes my brain stronger overall and makes me smarter! 😀

Survival of the fittest strikes again.
 
Kickback said:
It is true that Russians drink vodka like water, but voda (not vodka) is water in Russian.
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You either don't know Russian that well or completely rely on a third party source. It does mean water. You can't go to a dictionary and expect to get the right answer all the time. I'll just say that the relationship of "voda" to "vodka" is the same as "abuelo" to "abuelito." It is not as explainable in English.
 
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