Does anyone remember the “this is your brain – this is your brain on drugs” commercials from the 1980s? Bold messaging and wonderful symbolism combined to create an idea that is still sticky today.
Is the brain fried like an egg in a pan? Are there prolonged issues after the hangover? Are we really killing brain cells with every beer?
Alcohol makes cells less likely to work. The drug ethanol causes the cells to be less responsive to neighboring cells. It is a sedative. But wait, there’s more.
ALCOHOL CAN BURN CELLS
Prior to the cocktails even go to your head they have to get past your guts. In fact, the lining of the mouth absorbs some alcohol, but the majority of of it reaches the blood stream via the stomach or intestine. Alcohol is locally toxic to cells by chasing out water. It is handled in the liver where more chemical burning takes place.
At high enough concentrations alcohol can overwhelm the liver’s ability to keep up. The large organ within your right ribcage is charged with clearing the stuff. It does a magnificent job, up to a point.
First the cells of the liver swell. Later they build up fat. Eventually they die and are exchanged by scar tissue. This routine is called cirrhosis. You don’t want to let things get this far because the there is no way to cure cirrhosis.
TARGET ACQUIRED
The only basis I ever drank alcohol was for the effect on my brain. From pleasantly buzzed to completely wasted the process was all happening between my ears. This is where the addiction authorities get the idea that this is a “brain disease.” Where else would it be taking place?
Cells speak with their neighbors. They use a fragile combination of electricity and chemistry. Alcohol is a lousy drug. Very imprecise. It interferes with thoughts being passed from neuron to neuron in an unpredictable fashion.
Initially the alcohol suppresses the little voice inside your head that says, “don’t do that.”
* Don’t tell that joke.
* Don’t flirt with that individual.
* Don’t get out there and dance the electric boogaloo.
For a little while you feel calm and bold. The thoughts do not change that much but they won’t bother you so much.
With a few more cocktails the brain is suppressed altogether and the sedative properties become more general.
WHAT HAPPENED?
If you keep drinking and manage to stay awake other peculiar things happen. You can be conscious but not recall what you did. The blackout is malfunction of your brain to convert short-term memories into long ones. You are doing things but can’t remember them later. Embarrassment and/or terror dawn later as you reassemble the fragments.
With very high or on going moderate exposure to alcohol even worse things happen to your brain.
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