Does Drinking Kill Brain Cells?

Mental Floss ^ | February 26, 2013 | Matt Soniak

[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. 

[no-to-illegals]

Me neither and hope you are not offended. It blended into a story so well. Space Aliens and explanations.

[no-to-illegals]

Paul Harvey gonna come back and get me for that.

[Dead Corpse]

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

That makes me want to have another drink...

[no-to-illegals]

Howdy Paul.

[RetSignman]

...and he was the designated driver.

[Lazamataz]

It takes a lot to offend me.

[Dead Corpse]

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...

[no-to-illegals]

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.

[no-to-illegals]

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.

[no-to-illegals]

as the article mentions it is the antiseptics.

[Dead Corpse]

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

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

[no-to-illegals]

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.

[no-to-illegals]

Disclaimer: The previous was neither drug or insanity produced and induced.

[no-to-illegals]

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.

[Slings and Arrows]

Happier for some than others. ;^)

[Dead Corpse]

Build a better border fence for the aliens...

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

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

I’ll drink to that!

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

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“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.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

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

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

[no-to-illegals]

The falcon was not large enough. The mustang ran too fast. The stingray was a Chevy.