Effects Of Alcohol On The Brain

The effects of alcohol on one’s brain are mostly damaging. Alcohol consumption and absorption into the body affects most sections of a person’s brain, but in a nutshell, alcohol contracts the brain tissues and depresses the nervous components of one’s body. Alcohol destroys brain cells, which do not regenerate like other body cells. Cognition and memory problems, which are controlled mostly by the brain, are eventually affected in the case of prolonged and excessive drinking. When alcohol reaches the person’s brain there is interference in how the nerve cells communicate. There is a relative increase in the activity in the inhibitory nerve pathway when there is suppression by alcohol in the excitatory nerve pathway.

Alcohol also enhances effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, which makes a person sluggish. At the same time, alcohol consumption weakens the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamine, which further enhances sluggishness in a person who has consumed alcohol.

Alcohol’s consumption interferes with the neurotransmitters that form part of the chemical signals in the brain. The brain in this case cannot easily control the body’s systems, including the muscular, respiratory, and digestive systems. Physical, electrical, and chemical signals cannot be transmitted from one cell to another as required because of the effects of alcohol on the brain.

Alcohol affects normal neurotransmission because of its chemical introduction to the synapse a gap that is in-between cells of the brain where these neurotransmitters are active. Alcohol has an effect on one’s cerebral cortex, which always processes information from one’s senses, initiates the majority of a person’s voluntary muscle movements, thoughts, and controls the lower order brain centers.

The manifestational effects of alcohol on the cerebral cortex include interference in thought processing leading to poor judgment, inhibition of depression giving one a talkative and confident characteristic, and dulling one’s senses, increasing one’s threshold for pain. These effects on the brain become even more pronounced with more consumption.

The limbic system is also affected by the effects of alcohol. It comprises the hippocampus and the septal area of one’s brain, which controls emotional responses and memory. Cases of memory loss and exaggerated states of emotions are due to alcohol. The cerebellum, which is responsible for coordination of muscle movements, can also be affected by alcohol.

Balance depends on this part of one’s brain for fine movement and coordination. Alcohol affects the cerebellum, resulting in the unstable and uncoordinated muscle movement of a drunken person. The pituitary gland, which is responsible for coordination of hormonal releases, and the hypothalamus, which controls and influences most functions that are automatic in one’s brain through the medulla, are adversely affected by alcohol.

Nerve compositions at the hypothalamus are hence depressed. The consequences of alcohol on this part of one’s brain will interfere with sexual performance and arousal. A sexual urge is often experienced, but simultaneously one will experience a decline in performance. There is inhibition of secretions from the pituitary gland of the anti-diuretic hormone because of the alcohol effects that are experienced.

Those who consume alcohol always urinate, often at short intervals, because of the inability of one’s kidney to process it. The medulla, which influences and controls involuntarily and automatic body functions that occur, such as heartbeat rate, breathing, and temperature fluctuation, is adversely affected by alcohol. Somebody under the influence of alcohol may feel sleepy and with increased consumption one can easily become unconscious.

The alcoholic effects of one’s brain can be fatal. Alcohol has damaging effects on the brain and all this is manifested in impaired vision, difficulty in walking, slowed reaction time, slurred speech, and impaired memory, among other consequences that originate from the brain functioning will experience interference through intoxication.

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