The Roze Team wanted to open readers’ eyes to the effect that alcohol may have on people’s bodies, especially their brains. Slurred speech and loss of balance are two symptoms that can be quite noticeable. Others, such as cell death, are more difficult to detect.
Drinking alcohol is embedded in American culture, and for many people, it is a regular part of their everyday lives. They could have a glass of wine with dinner, a beer at happy hour after work, or even three or four cocktails when on vacation.
On the other hand, a 2018 study in The Lancet says that there is no safe amount of alcohol to drink.
Even moderate intake levels can be detrimental to your health; higher consumption levels have worse effects.
Some of those effects, such as speech slurring and memory loss, can be extremely noticeable; other effects, like long-term cellular damage, might not be as evident.
The 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the HHS, also known as the United States Department of Health and Human Services, say that men should limit their alcohol intake to two or fewer drinks per day and women should drink no more than a part of a drink.
The CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that heavy drinking is when a woman has eight or more drinks per week, and a man has 15 or more drinks per week.
What Role Does Binge Drinking Have in This Scenario?
The CDC defines binge drinking as having four or more alcoholic beverages for women or five or more alcoholic beverages for men all at once.
Here’s a quick primer if you’ve ever wondered what happens in the brain when someone drinks too much.
Alcohol’s Short-Term Impact on Neurotransmitters
According to Maria Pagano, Ph.D., a professor and an addiction researcher at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, drinking alcohol changes the amounts of neurotransmitters in the brain.
These chemical messengers play a significant role in regulating behavior, mood, and physical activity. They also transmit signals throughout the body.
Intoxicated people exhibit delayed movement, slurred speech, and slower reaction times because alcohol shuts down the neurotransmitter GABA, according to Pagano.
In addition, glutamate, a neurotransmitter that controls dopamine in the reward area of the brain, is accelerated by alcohol, according to Pagano.
According to Pagano, it causes sensations of pleasure and well-being.
This explains why drinking may give you a pleasant, fuzzy feeling.
Judgment
Alcohol also decreases inhibitions and impairs judgment, which may cause someone to partake in unsafe activities like unprotected sex or drunk driving.
A person’s symptoms and mood fluctuations may worsen if they already have a mental health issue, such as depression or bipolar disorder.
The cerebral cortex and cerebellum, which assist in maintaining equilibrium, are also impacted by binge drinking. These parts of the brain are also responsible for taking in and processing new information.
When these brain areas are slowed down, a person may experience blurred or double vision, dizziness, and difficulties paying attention to what is going on around them. They may also stumble when walking.
You won’t be taking in new information as well because of your reduced sensory absorption, according to Pagano.
Memory
Alcohol also affects the hippocampus region of the brain, which is involved in the formation of new memories, which can lead to short-term memory loss and blackouts when drinking.
Men and women have alcohol-induced blackouts at identical rates, despite the fact that women typically drink less frequently and less strongly than men, according to an analysis published in the journal Alcohol Research in 2020.
In the most extreme circumstances, drinking too much alcohol too fast might cause a loss of consciousness.
But this is also a symptom of cell death, according to Lara Ray, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the Brain Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. We worry about it for safety reasons, of course, she added.
We are also concerned about brain injury, which can have long-term effects on memory and learning if there have been several instances of severe drinking.
The majority of these effects, according to Ray, are brought on by a brief increase in blood alcohol levels.
Drinking in moderation and avoiding doing so when you’re hungry can help lower your risk of developing them yourself.
Consequences of Alcohol Over Time
Excessive drinking can undoubtedly put you in danger of harm, poor decisions, or public humiliation.
Regrettably, drinking alcohol frequently might permanently affect your health.
Brain Shrinkage
A 2021 study published in Scientific Reports suggests that binge drinking may cause a reduction in brain volume.
Researchers discovered that those who suffer from alcohol use disorder (AUD) have less brain tissue than those who do not.
Attention, language, memory, and reasoning are among the cognitive functions controlled by the damaged brain areas.
Alcohol can therefore alter your brain in ways that affect memory and judgment, among other things.
Alcohol can affect memory, according to other studies. In the Journal of Neurology, a study published in 2014 revealed that heavy drinking might also hasten memory loss in the early stages of old age, at least in men.
The study found that indicators of cognitive deterioration in men who drank more than two and a half drinks per day appeared up to six years earlier than in men who abstained from alcohol, ceased drinking, or drank in moderation or small amounts (results for women were not conclusive, the authors said).
Increased Dependence and Tolerance
Regular drinkers may also discover that alcohol doesn’t affect them as much as it once did.
According to Pagano, drinking frequently might cause the reward system’s circuitry to become worn out and lose some of its regular functionality.
You develop a tolerance, and after a while, even the same amounts of alcohol don’t make you feel as fantastic as they used to.
People’s behavior with regard to alcohol changes as a result of these changes in the brain.
The likelihood that they may seek out alcohol and use it as a coping mechanism increases, according to Ray.
People frequently begin drinking to feel good, but as they become more chronic drinkers, they must drink to feel good instead of feeling miserable.
Brain Damage and Cell Death
Drinking more and more in order to feel better results in more and higher consumption, which can harm the brain and the rest of the body more.
In the brain, for instance, alcohol kills cells and harms cellular networks, and it is unclear how much of either can recover.
Vitamin Defeciencies
Wet brain is a real condition, as the idiom goes, according to Pagano. NINDS, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, describes the wet brain as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a kind of dementia brought on by thiamine, or vitamin B1, deficiency in the brain.
Thiamine absorption is hampered by alcohol, which also interferes with the enzyme that transforms it into a form the body can use.
According to Pagano, chronic drinking can significantly change a person’s personality. I’ve seen situations where, based on how a patient behaved, I wouldn’t identify them. Another typical side effect of long-term, excessive drinking is cirrhosis of the liver, which can result in brain damage (and symptoms like brain fog).
According to Pagano, damaged areas of the brain can begin to light up again during brain scans after cutting back on alcohol consumption.
There are, however, limitations, according to Pagano, and frequently progress isn’t noticeable until months have passed, during which the brain has had time to heal.
Alcohol-related Brain (and Body) Damage Can Even Be Fatal
Those who routinely used 10 or more drinks per week had one to two years less life expectancy than those who consumed fewer than five drinks per week, according to a 2018 study published in The Lancet.
For those who consumed 18 or more drinks each week, that figure increased to four or five years.
Alcohol use was found by researchers to be associated with a number of cardiovascular issues. These cardiovascular problems include a stroke—a potentially fatal restriction of blood flow to the brain.
How Much is Excessive?
A person should make the decision to drink on their own, with the advice of a medical or mental health professional, or both.
According to Pagano, drinking at low or moderate levels—no more than seven drinks per week for women and no more than 14 for men—can be a healthy part of life for those who do not have a history of alcohol dependence or addiction.
However, Pagano cautioned that it could be time to reevaluate your relationship with drinking if your reaction to alcohol differs considerably from other people’s.
If you see your friends leaving alcohol in their cups but you know you could never do it yourself, or if you can drink other people beneath the table, those are signals you have a genetic setup for developing an addiction, said Pagano.
Ray agreed that although some people can safely follow the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ recommendations for low-risk drinking—a drink or a part of a drink for women and two or fewer drinks per day for men—others may find it hard to do so because of their genes, their busy lives, or other risk factors.
Ray emphasized the significance of this, noting that heavy drinking and alcohol use problems have become more common in recent years, particularly among women.
The 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans also say that some people should not drink at all. This includes people who are pregnant or think they might be pregnant, plan to drive or operate machinery, do things that require skill, coordination, or alertness, or take medicines that interact with alcohol.
Alcohol Use Disorder
When drinking is legal in the United States at age 21, it can be challenging to manage a medical condition that could become worse due to alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Pagano warned against becoming too dependent on alcohol, even though it can help people get along with others and give them liquid courage if they are shy or nervous.
Pagano responded, Maybe you shouldn’t be doing it if drinking allows you to indulge in activities you wouldn’t otherwise engage in.
You won’t learn how to navigate social situations without it if you only use it to have fun.
Pagano asserts that there are many good reasons to be optimistic for those who do decide to give up drinking.
Many people are afraid of quitting and being unable to drink, according to Pagano.
But in real life, things can get better when you make better decisions and can fully enjoy your experiences instead of just remembering the best parts.
Alcohol, Let’s Face it, Can Be Problematic
If used moderately, alcohol can have some health benefits, is legal (if you’re over 21), and is frequently used in social contexts.
Yet, it can have some seriously detrimental effects if used excessively or in particular circumstances.
Contact your healthcare practitioner or dial the SAMHSA, which is known as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration national helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) if you believe alcohol is negatively affecting your life or health and need assistance quitting or regaining control. We at the Roze Team how that you seriously consider how different types of alcohol consumption can negatively impact people’s brains and bodies.