
What Alcohol Actually Does to Your Brain and Body - ArturSoler
http://lifehacker.com/5684996/what-alcohol-actually-does-to-your-brain-and-body
======
alki
I often wonder if the mild alcoholism of my youth (drinking to blackout
roughly once every month, starting at age 16) has given me any lasting
impairment. Certainly, I have no terrible damage since I am highly functional
at an intellectually demanding job. But I've always wondered if I took an edge
off my memory. My "prospective memory" (remembering to complete tasks without
reminder) seems to be much worse than average, but it's hard to tell if this
is within natural variation and, even if so, if my alcohol use affected it.

I've read in a few places that alcoholism in children and teens leads to
demonstrated long-term memory effects, especially for prospective memory. Does
anyone know the level of alcohol consumption at which this effect becomes
measurable? Is this damage permanent? (My google-fu seems inadequate.)

I suspect that researchers simply don't have the data to make precise
confident statements about damage that is marginal (and, hence, is hard to
measure).

~~~
klochner
It sounds like the alcohol contributed to your hypochondria

[edit] lighten up, for the love of god. I'm taking the downvotes on principle
here.

He "often wonders"? Seriously, he should get over it - there's nothing he can
do about it at this point, and he's admittedly a highly functional person at
an intellectually demanding job.

[2nd edit] Here's a desnarkified version of my original comment:

Life is hard, and you're going to screw some things up, but you compound those
mistakes by focusing on what you could have been rather than what you could
still potentially be.

~~~
alki
I think it's entirely appropriate to consider the negative effects of previous
decisions even if one is unable to mitigate them. Choosing to ignore them
seems like an unhealthy attitude which could contribute to future mistakes.

------
teilo
"Your body sees alcohol as a poison, or at least as something it doesn't
actually want inside it."

The fact that the body attempts to break down and dispose of alcohol does not
mean that the body, of necessity, considers it a poison. There are many
substances in regular food that the body breaks down and disposes, and many
foods, in sufficient amounts, could arguably be considered a poison.

The article points out that the effects of alcohol, while well studied, are
still not well understood from a metabolic standpoint: such as the poor
ability of young women to metabolize it. There could well be some metabolic
by-product of the breakdown of alcohol that has distinct health benefits in
sufficiently moderate amounts.

~~~
chopsueyar
Sounds kind of like fiber.

------
xentronium
> _researchers followed 1824 people over a total of 20 years, as they aged
> between 55 and 65. Of those who abstained entirely, 69 percent died. Among
> those who drank in "moderate" amounts, 41 percent died—which was 23 percent
> less than the "light" drinkers. Even "heavy drinkers" fared better than
> abstainers, with just 61 percent passing away during the study period._

I believe that's the case when the correlation is similar to global warming
and number of pirates [1]

[1] [http://www.tonguetiedandtwisted.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/...](http://www.tonguetiedandtwisted.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/03/fsm_pirates.png)

[add]: i.e. no correlation.

~~~
randallsquared
Please find the (apparently obvious) problem with the results. I keep seeing
articles about how study after study confirms the alcohol/longevity link, so
if you can find the common problem those studies all have, (very minor) fame
awaits! :)

~~~
fjh
The one problem that I can see is the fact that these studies can only
correlate people's behaviour and their longevity, as opposed to randomly
assigning people into groups of drinkers/teetotallers. It is a fair assumption
that people who don't drink differ from other people in other aspects, too.
(e.g. they might be more religious, or not drink for health reasons, or have a
less active social life etc). You obviously cannot do double-blind studies
about long-term alcohol consumption, so correlation is the best we have, but
one must still be careful when interpreting these kinds of results.

~~~
ojbyrne
There are numerous experimental designs that, while they don't have the
predictive value of double-blind experiments, are found to have significant
predictive value. The simplest way is to control for the confounding factors
such as you describe.

Google "Quasi-experimentation."

------
davi
Funny that an article inventorying the effects of alcohol fails to discuss how
it addicts some people.

[edit: I meant failure to discuss mechanisms of addiction to alcohol, which
are at least as interesting the biochemical pathways by which alcohol is
metabolized, if not as well understood.]

~~~
darklajid
Quote (emphasis mine) from the beginning of the article:

We're taking a few things for granted here: that you understand some of the
basics of alcohol consumption, blood alcohol content, legal limits, what it
feels like when you've had too much to drink, _and the serious illness of
alcoholism_.

[Edit: Responding to your edit: Agreed. As far as I know, alcohol
detoxification(?) is far harder (and needs to be done more careful) than
getting off of even some of the hard drugs (heroin, lots of meds, etc). It
would have been intesting to see this "myth" of mine to be confirmed or busted
in an article like that as well.]

~~~
Perceval
The article intimates at the answer to why alcohol withdrawal can be more
difficult and dangerous than hard drugs. Recall the part where they explain
how cocaine and heroin and speed only work on one neurotransmitter
principally, whereas alcohol works on a large number (dopamine, seratonin,
GABA, norepinephrine, etc)—scalpel vs. hand grenade.

So in withdrawing from cocaine or heroin or nicotine you can prescribe someone
a drug that works on the relevant receptors, blocking or even reversing the
effect of the drug. For example, I recall that buproprion is prescribed to
treat nicotine addiction because it blocks nicotine's effect on norepinephrine
receptors. The strategy with heroin or cocaine withdrawal might be similar,
targeting the opioid or dopamine receptors respectively.

Contrast this with the wider effects of alcohol, influencing half a dozen or
more neurotransmitters. There's no easy strategy to target the chemical
dependencies your brain has built up because there're too many.

So while heroin and cocaine are more immediately addictive than alcohol,
withdrawal from alcoholism (once it has developed) can be just as dangerous
and sometimes more so.

------
adulau
If you want to review where Alcohol stands compared to the other psychoactive
components:

<http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/psychoactives.shtml>

From my personal experience, I don't drink alcohol at all and find always fun
to see the regular alcohol consumption and its effect on people. The effect on
me, I'm always the driver at the end of the party...

------
gxs
Most of the items in that article you should be familiar if you drink
regularly, especially because I imagine most of you have read quite a few of
these types of articles as they seem to pop up every now and then.

Word to the wise though: the whole drinking on a full stomach thing, is true,
but it's deceiving. What used to happen to me when I just started drinking,
was I would drink on a full stomach. Then, drink til I got buzzed. Then, as
the article points out, all the food I'd eaten moved into the small
intestine...along with alll the alcohol I'd drunk. Then of course it's lights
out.

------
brc
They're not kidding about the effects on some Asian people. I once dated an
Asian girl who had two glasses of wine with dinner, went betroot red and fell
off her chair.

She later (embarrassed beyond belief) admitted that she couldn't handle
alcohol but thought she could get through it because I ordered a bottle and
didn't want to seem unsocial.

~~~
paydro
Being Asian, I also have a similar effect. I don't get drunk, but rather I go
from being a little buzzed or tipsy to hung over. I get pounding headaches and
I always want to fall asleep. If I'm lucky, I'll find a beer/wine/spirit that
I can nurse for most the night and be okay. Once I get over the tipping point
(depends on the alcohol oddly enough), then I go straight into headache mode.

I've also tried Pepcid AC and that works wonders for my condition. Not sure
how that affects my system, but I get to experience the different stages of
alcohol when I take a pill or two before drinking.

------
narrator
Here's a better summary for the more biochemically nerdy:

<http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par7.htm>

I gave up alcohol a while ago. Reading stuff like this gave me a good excuse
to never go back.

------
pyre

      > Keep that in mind the next time you or someone else claims that they
      > drive, golf, or otherwise perform some task better with alcohol's
      > help.
    

The only time that I actually believe people about this is when they are
artists who claim that they can perform their art better on {drug}. Though
when it comes to things like {heroine,cocaine,etc} I tend to be more
skeptical.

~~~
icegreentea
When you practice tasks, you get better at them, when in the same (or
relatively same) situation as the practice. For example, if you get really
good at playing chess wearing a tshirt and shorts in the snow, then you'll
probably not be as good at chess in 40 degree heat.

Same deal with performing under influences of drugs. Up to a degree, if you do
something more while drunk then sober, and get quite good at doing it while
drunk, then you it won't necessarily translate over completely to when sober.
Of course, if you're totally wasted, then it's all bullshit.

------
grantlmiller
it sounds like i need to get my hands on some artificial Alcohol
dehydrogenases

------
drivebyacct2
Consider legal alternatives that are equal in relaxation and aren't damaging.
(no fire!)

~~~
danohuiginn
your suggestion for these?

------
beagledude
I'm going to stay ignorant and not read this article.

