How alcohol abuse affects your brain

Alcohol abuse can cause many adverse effects to your brain and body.

Here’s what you need to know about its damaging effects on your brain.

How does alcohol affect the brain and central nervous system?

Even in small amounts, alcohol affects your balance, reaction time, memory, judgment, senses and your ability to manage your emotions. Alcohol changes the flow of communication between neurons, which are nerve cells in your brain.

As you drink more, these effects become magnified. Over time, they can become long-term problems.

Alcohol is a brain toxin and causes chronic inflammation, not only in the brain, but in cells throughout the body. Chronic inflammation is your immune system staying activated though there’s no actual threat to fend off.

Alcohol kills brain cells

Alcohol damages and kills brain cells. Still, it is possible for damaged brain cells to recover. Some functions of lost brain cells can be restored by existing nerve cells branching out to compensate for the lost cells — a process called neuroplasticity.

But some losses may be permanent. This presents a greater problem for older adults. The brain loses mass and volume as we age, so any damage drinking causes will become more pronounced later in life.

Unborn babies can be exposed to alcohol through the placenta, and that affects the development of their nervous system. This can cause intellectual and behavioral problems with attention, memory, speech, motor coordination and impulse control.

An important developmental period of the brain occurs between the ages of 13 and 26, when heavy drinking can lead to cognitive problems such as impulsivity, anxiety, depression and being unable to control emotions.

How harmful is binge drinking?

Binge drinking is defined by The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as drinking to a blood alcohol level of .08% or above. This typically happens when men have five or more drinks or women have four or more drinks in about two hours.

The immediate consequences of binge drinking can include:

• Upset stomach and vomiting
• Headaches
• Breathing difficulties
• Rapid/irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure
• Distorted vision and hearing
• Decreased perception and coordination
• Blackouts (memory lapses)
• Decreased sexual performance
• Dehydration
• Dangerous interaction with some prescribed and over-the-counter medications
• Fatal alcohol poisoning
• Accidents due to problems with balance and slowed reaction times
• Social consequences related to impaired judgment
• Damaged relationships
• Imprudent sexual encounters
• Assault
• Police involvement

What’s the difference between binge drinking and alcohol use disorder (alcoholism)?

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the contemporary term for what we used to call “alcoholism.” AUD is a medical condition apart from binge drinking that results in behavioral and physical loss of control.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines AUD as “a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment and an individual’s life experiences.”

All of those factors determine whether you develop AUD. Genetics plays a key role in who develops AUD, factoring up to 60% in a person’s vulnerability.

What are the long-term effects of alcohol abuse on the brain?

Unfortunately, there are many. The general term for it is “alcohol related brain damage”:

• The brain shrinks.
• Damage to your hippocampus, the portion of your brain that handles memories and learning, can impair your ability to make new memories, including causing blackouts. That’s when your brain can’t remember what happened while you were drinking.
• Damage to your cerebellum, located at the back of your head, leads to problems with balance, coordination and speech.
• Effects on the limbic system, a group of interconnected brain structures, lead to difficulty controlling your emotions along with anxiety, depression, irritability, aggression and mood swings.
• Prefrontal cortex damage can cause disorganized thinking, impulsivity, attention and decision-making.
• Heavy alcohol use can result in alcohol-related dementia syndromes including Wernicke–Korsakoff encephalopathy.
• Increased risk of stroke and brain damage can occur from falls, accidents or violence.

What are long-term effects of alcohol abuse on the rest of the body?

Alcohol abuse also affects the whole body and can lead to:

• A weakened immune system
• Heart damage including stroke, arrhythmia and high blood pressure
• Chronic inflammation in the panaceas and liver, including fatty liver, hepatitis and cirrhosis.
• Cancer: Many forms of cancer stem from alcohol abuse.

Is there any way to reverse the effects?

Many of the effects of heavy alcohol use are reversible or can at least be significantly improved. Professionals such as physicians, neurologists, addiction specialists, dietitians, psychiatrists, cardiologists, physical therapists and others can all help the recovery process. There’s no timeline for recovery for the brain, but the first step is to stop drinking.

While many, if not most, binge alcohol users don’t have AUD, it’s important to stop the habit.

How much is too much? As a rule, the human body can handle moderate levels of alcohol without any problems. Essentially, that’s 1 ounce of alcohol (a 12-ounce beer, a shot of 80 proof liquor, or 5 ounces of wine) per hour. We see the problems arise with heavy use.

According to the United States Dietary Guidelines, people should limit drinking to one serving of alcohol per day for women and up to two servings per day for men.

The belief that a drink or two a day is healthy has recently been challenged in studies showing no health benefits to drinking alcohol. One to two drinks a day isn’t healthy — it just doesn’t pose a significant risk to your health.