Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Does Drinking Kill Brain Cells?
Mental Floss ^ | February 26, 2013 | Matt Soniak

Posted on 04/02/2013 10:43:20 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows

Reader Scott wrote in to ask, “Does alcohol kill brain cells?”

Oh, Lisa, you and your stories. ‘Bart is a vampire.’ ‘Beer kills brain cells.’ Now let’s go back to that…building…thingy, where our beds and TV…is.” - Homer Simpson

Watch someone after they’ve had a few drinks, and you’ll find evidence that alcohol does something to their brain. They stumble, slur their words, lose control of their emotions, and forget things. 

Some people have tried to explain this behavior as the aftermath of cell death caused by alcohol. Often, it’s packaged as a neat factoid like “Three beers kill 10,000 brain cells.”

Now, ethyl alcohol (the kind found in boozy beverages, also known as ethanol) can kill cells and microorganisms. That’s what makes it an effective antiseptic. Your brain contains a few billion cells called neurons that send electrical and chemical messages between it and the other parts of the body. Obviously, you don’t want these little guys dying en masse. 

Fortunately, when you drink alcoholic beverages, your body tries not to let all of that ethanol roam around unchecked. Rather, your liver processes it and converts it into less toxic stuff. The liver can only work so fast, though, processing about 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits per hour. If you’re knocking drinks back fast enough that your liver can’t keep up, the excess alcohol hangs out in the blood and travels through the body until it can be processed. 

When this alcohol reaches the brain, it doesn’t kill the cells outright. What actually happens, according to Roberta Pentney, a cell biologist who studied alcohol and brain function for decades at SUNY Buffalo, is that the alcohol damages the parts of the cells that send and receive information. This causes problems with the way the cells communicate with each other and results in some of the impairments of intoxication. 

Researchers at Washington University found that alcohol, even when applied directly to neurons, didn’t kill them. Like in Pentney’s work, it just interfered with the way they transmit information. Specifically, the researchers showed that alcohol causes certain receptors on neurons to manufacture steroids that inhibit memory formation. 

Some alcoholics can experience neuron death as part of a disease called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. In these cases, the evidence again suggests that the disease and cell death aren’t caused by the alcohol itself, but a deficiency in the B vitamin thiamine and general malnutrition that often go hand in hand with alcoholism. 

For moderate drinkers, a number of studies from the last 15 years suggest that, far from killing brain cells, a little tipple is actually associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia. 


TOPICS: Food; Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: alcohol; brain; health; napl
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last
To: Lazamataz
Me neither and hope you are not offended. It blended into a story so well. Space Aliens and explanations.
41 posted on 04/03/2013 6:05:21 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Lazamataz

Paul Harvey gonna come back and get me for that.


42 posted on 04/03/2013 6:07:19 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

You mean those memories I was trying to get rid aren’t going anywhere?

That makes me want to have another drink...


43 posted on 04/03/2013 6:12:23 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dead Corpse

Howdy Paul.


44 posted on 04/03/2013 6:20:45 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: JoeProBono

...and he was the designated driver.


45 posted on 04/03/2013 6:28:38 AM PDT by RetSignman ("...a Republic if you can keep it")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: no-to-illegals

It takes a lot to offend me.


46 posted on 04/03/2013 6:29:15 AM PDT by Lazamataz ("AP" clearly stands for American Pravda. Our news media has become completely and proudly Soviet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: no-to-illegals

Paul? I’d prefer to be called Ivan. Gunnar will also work in a pinch...

None of those are my real name, but I’ll answer to them with a couple of stiff drinks in me...


47 posted on 04/03/2013 6:33:33 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Lazamataz
Thanks Laz. Still worried about Paul Harvey though. Have been reading up on zombies and all the government warnings. What would Paul Harvey say? It may be a NK trick with both NK and Iran providing the zombies. Brain cells ... it is good the story has been told and the rest is history with the future unknown. I think Asia, the Middle East, and other parts of the world missed out on some of the breeding process when the Aliens came or too much inbreeding as has been accused of Americans with Aliens. I hope there was one LOL in the postings this A.M.
48 posted on 04/03/2013 6:35:48 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Dead Corpse; Lazamataz

OOOPPPPSEY. Don’t be guilty of killing brain cells. Laz is the one you want. Laz is the brain of this operation. I haven’t been able to get off the operating table.


49 posted on 04/03/2013 6:39:17 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

as the article mentions it is the antiseptics.
50 posted on 04/03/2013 6:44:39 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: no-to-illegals

Do what I do... Chew through the straps.

Some mornings, it’s not worth the effort...


51 posted on 04/03/2013 6:48:50 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Dead Corpse
Am going to have to call ET to get the spaceship ready if me chews through the straps. Calling in all Aliens! There be zombies on the attack.
52 posted on 04/03/2013 6:52:04 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: The previous was neither drug or insanity produced and induced.
53 posted on 04/03/2013 6:56:15 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows
There's a call coming in on the Hot Line. Jesus done left Chicago, a detour has been made and New Orleans is not on the travel agenda.
54 posted on 04/03/2013 7:02:41 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Daffynition

Happier for some than others. ;^)


55 posted on 04/03/2013 7:08:34 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: no-to-illegals
Build a better border fence for the aliens...

As for Zombies, chill-lax... I got this.


56 posted on 04/03/2013 7:23:48 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Winston

I’ll drink to that!

Who am I kidding? I’ll drink to almost anything. :)


57 posted on 04/03/2013 7:31:54 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'll stop being a cynic when the world stops giving me reasons to be cynical.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: max americana

“5 pints makes any woman look like a Victoria’s Secret supermodel.”

Yup. She may be a 2 at 10, but she’ll be a 10 at 2.


58 posted on 04/03/2013 7:32:59 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'll stop being a cynic when the world stops giving me reasons to be cynical.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: no-to-illegals

“... the strangers came from a galaxie far far away ...”

You sure they didn’t come from a Fairlane far far away? ;)


59 posted on 04/03/2013 7:35:02 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'll stop being a cynic when the world stops giving me reasons to be cynical.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
The falcon was not large enough. The mustang ran too fast. The stingray was a Chevy.
60 posted on 04/03/2013 7:37:01 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson