What is the Connection Between Alcohol and Brain Damage?

Alcohol and brain damage are connected because consuming alcohol has the potential to affect brain cells in various ways. There is sometimes short-term brain damage, and more rarely, people may also experience severe long-term damage. Some of the connections between alcohol and brain damage are caused by the toxic effects of alcohol on brain cells, while others may stem from alcohol’s potential to damage other organs or cause certain nutritional deficiencies. Scientists are studying various treatments for alcohol-related brain damage, and there have been some promising findings suggesting that people's brains may recover with proper rehabilitation.

One of the most common connections between alcohol and brain damage is a phenomenon called an alcohol blackout. When people suffer a blackout, the brain basically stops recording data, and individuals won't be able to remember anything. This usually happens when people reach a very high level of intoxication, and it’s generally more common among people with a very high alcohol tolerance. Some evidence suggests that this problem can affect women more severely than men.

After using alcohol for a very long time, people may gradually suffer more long-term brain damage. For example, some individuals may become more forgetful or find that they don’t learn things as easily. This kind of damage is often subtle, and people may not even recognize it enough to seek medical treatment.

Some individuals also experience perceptual motor problems due to alcohol brain damage. This can manifest in very minor ways, such as a tremble in the hands, or it can become so severe that people have trouble balancing or walking without help. Studies have also shown that alcohol consumption often causes problems with an individual’s ability to judge distances and make other visual calculations.

Some experts think that alcohol consumption may cause the brain to stop growing new cells at a normal rate, which may be the cause of many alcohol-related brain damage issues. So, in actuality, the alcohol may not actually be destroying the cells. Instead, it may simply inhibit the brain’s normal self-repairing potential and lead to a gradual increase in wear and tear that slowly shrinks the brain.

Thiamine deficiency is a nutritional problem that’s connected to both alcohol and brain damage. It leads to a disability called Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome, which can cause everything from motor problems to severe memory failure. Liver damage from alcohol consumption can also have the potential to cause indirect brain damage through a disorder called hepatic encephalopathy.

Some evidence suggests that many alcohol-related brain damage effects will simply go away if people stay off alcohol for long enough. There was a time when scientists thought that most brain damage was usually permanent, but that has since been proven to be largely untrue. Some brain damage can be permanent, but the brain does have the ability to regenerate cells.