Drinking destroys brain cells.. right?

[Alpha Zeke]

Now, this might seem a bit like "Troll Logic" because I have no foundation for which my knowledge is on. But hear me out, and please do tell me why I am wrong.

Drinking destroys brain cells. Fact? Older people have trouble learning and recalling new information due to a massive amount of nerve connections and memories in the brain, right?

So theoretically, couldn't some alchohol now and then serve to keep the brain from retaining useless information? (Assuming 90% of what you learn is useless, then you have a 9/10 chance that you destroy something useless with drinking).

[beckyolt]

Uh that's pretty absurd. I'm the living proof of that.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Actually the brain trims useless connections itself after puberty. There's no need to use a dangerously inaccurate method to do what will happen by itself.

[Angrychris]

alcohols a solvent

[Tankbuster]

Drinking destroys brain cells. Fact?

It actually doesn't.

So the whole thing kind of collapses right there.

[hellheaven1987]

The fact is only if you drink too much that your body cannot dissolve it, then it would damage your body tissue (not just brain cells).

Furthermore, only ethanol is drinkable; try methanol and you would be dead after certain doze (since your body has no mechanism to dissolve methanol).

[Logios]

The fact is only if you drink too much that your body cannot dissolve it, then it would damage your body tissue (not just brain cells).

Furthermore, only ethanol is drinkable; try methanol and you would be dead after certain doze (since your body has no mechanism to dissolve methanol).

Sorry for splitting a hair here @hellheaven, but it is the same enzyme system in the liver that catalyze the degradation of both ethanol and methanol, but while ethanol is degrated into the (almost) harmless compound acetaldehyde, methanol is degrated into formaldehyde which is rather poisonous. The antidote for methanol poisoning is actually lots of ethanol since the two compounds will compede for the enzyme system and this way the formaldehyde concentration will not (hopefully) reach a toxic level. But basically, yes, be careful with the moonshine stuff and go for booze that is triple distilled instead.

[Denny Crane!]

Just another one of those myths about the brain. It doesn't kill a single brain cell, it can slightly damage dendrites but this is in the worst cases of alcohol abuse not a random night out on the town but however despite this damage to the cell and its ability to convey information the damage is not permanent. Extreme alcoholism can result apparently in Wernicke=Korsakoff syndrome which seems to be a result of a combination of problems resulting from the alcoholism including malnutrition.

[Greek Firethrower]

Alcohol is a neurotoxin nearly like nicotine. It blocks the receptors of the nerve cells (It has nearly the same effect at the nerve cells like marihuana).
That's the reason why you feel good after drinking.

But I read it destroys a special kind of cells in the brain, too.

[Denny Crane!]

Alcohol is a neurotoxin nearly like nicotine. It blocks the receptors of the nerve cells (It has nearly the same effect at the nerve cells like marihuana).
That's the reason why you feel good after drinking.

But I read it destroys a special kind of cells in the brain, too.

Not a special type of cell but the dendrites of the neurons and their communicative abilities but the effect is not permanent, see my post above.

[LSJ]

Brains are very efficient at tossing useless information, such as when you found old milk in your fridge at 2:00pm on January 6th of 2010. But the brain's capacity is enormous, so even if the brain stores useless stuff - like which fruit a celebrity has allergies to - it does not impact your ability to learn.

If you found a substance that actually could kill brain cells, it would still be pointless because cells can change and rewire themselves to find new uses, you don't know what each specific cell is doing, and you have no control over which cells are affected. You could easily give yourself a serious neurological problem.

It would be like carpet bombing your house to kill the ants in your kitchen.

[sumskilz]

Alcohol is a neurotoxin nearly like nicotine. It blocks the receptors of the nerve cells (It has nearly the same effect at the nerve cells like marihuana).
That's the reason why you feel good after drinking.

But I read it destroys a special kind of cells in the brain, too.

No, this is all wrong. Really, everything you said here is wrong without exception. Don't believe whatever source you got this from.

Ethanol is a GABA agonist. THC in marijuana is a CB1 agonist which indirectly causes GABA antagonism. In that way, they are opposite. One feels good after drinking because ethanol is a dopamine agonist. Nicotine is an acetylcholine agonist like black widow spider venom. There is a secondary activation of dopamine receptors which is why nicotine is addictive.

[ivan_the_terrible]

It kills the slow, weak ones and the strong, useful ones survive. So drink up.

[Nutsack]

A common symptom of addiction to anything is, looking for reasons to justify using it :p. I should know this.

This thread shouldn't convince anybody that drinking alcohol is OK all of a sudden. Just don't let it get out of hand...

As for alcohol as a chemical I've read several articles discussing it's affect on the development of the brain in teenagers. It can block your maturation process so I suggest not binge drinking too much until you're 18-22. But of course this is pretty silly, alcohol is not very damaging if you actually compare it to real drugs... stuff that leaves holes in your brain. Still very addictive though!

[xcorps]

But of course this is pretty silly, alcohol is not very damaging if you actually compare it to real drugs...

In 2007, a total of 38,371 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States (Tables 21 and 22). This category includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of legal or illegal drugs, but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs.

In 2007, a total of 23,199 persons died of alcohol-induced causes in the United States, 1,126 more deaths than in 2006 (Tables 23 and 24). This category includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of alcohol, but also accidental poisoning by alcohol.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_19.pdf
Based on those numbers, I'd say it isn't "not very damaging".

[Nikitn]

Allright, how about the death-rate in % of drug users and alcohol users? Almost everyone drinks alcohol.

[Nutsack]

I believe the change in human behavior after consuming alcohol is what makes it the worst drug on the planet however it is not the most toxic.

A heroin addict can live a normal life, have a job and family if the substance was subsidised by the government and heroin addiction treated as a disease not as a crime. The risk for overdosing would be relatively low since the drug would be taken three times a day in a controlled environment with anti-doses readily available (if an accident would even occur). This is the case in Denmark, where registered heroin addicts even being given a food stamp so that they might eat lunch instead of using that money for drugs or criminal activity. I like that model.

Heroin doesn't ultimately drive their users to death, like statistics have shown for drugs like cocaine. Rat experiments on the drug cocaine shows that they always ultimately overdose themselves and die, eventually (given unlimited amounts of the drug). I believe (not sure), that heroin doses are most often caused by an uncertainty of how potent the drug is (because street drugs always vary in potency of course). And since injection is a very direct form of administering, there is little time to feel the oncoming rush and to be aware if the dosage has been too strong (leading to overdose).

Alcohol... right, completely got off track. I was talking to a man living in the same rehab center this summer, and I wanted to note how he told me he had injected alcohol into his veins once. And he also told me how it was a really stupid idea. Imagine going from completely sober to being smashed in like 1 second. Must be a really ed up experience hahaha.