Healthy lifestyles often try to convince drinkers that alcohol kills brain cells. But is it really so?
Heavily drunk people often cannot connect even a couple of words, and sometimes even move with difficulty. However, this has nothing to do with the fact that their brains are dying due to alcohol.
In fact, the human body is designed so that it does not allow ethanol, which is contained in alcohol, to destroy brain cells. Despite the fact that alcohol itself easily destroys any microorganisms.
The fact is that enzymes in the liver are able to break down ethanol to acetate. And this substance, in turn, breaks down into water and carbon dioxide, after which they are removed by the body.
If a person drinks too much, and the liver cannot cope with such a load, alcohol really enters the bloodstream. But even in this case, ethanol does not kill cells, but only blocks communication between neurons in the cerebellum. That is why a drunken person has impaired coordination of movements.
In addition, as researchers from the United States have found, alcohol in general is not able to kill neurons, even if alcohol is injected directly into them. It will only be more difficult for neurons to transmit information. But this is also fixable - it is enough just to abstain from alcohol for a while.
Author: Mira Markina