Alcohol is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. The number of alcoholic consumers has been or the rise. According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, over 80 percent of American adults have taken alcohol at some period in their lives, with 52 percent of the population taking alcohol regularly.
There are various types of alcohol with ethanol being the most dominant. Alcohol is made through fermentation of yeast that results in alcohol and carbon dioxide. While people assume it boosts morale to socialize, alcohol's effect on the brain may lead to the following.
1. Memory Lapses
Alcohol consumption leads to memory impairment in different degrees of loss, depending on the amount of alcohol consumed. In fact, drinking a lot of alcohol when hungry may make the user experience a blackout condition; blackout is characterized by a victim losing memory temporarily for some time, which in most cases requires medication for recovery.
2. Slows Processing and Consciousness
Drunken people are at times associated with poor reasoning as well as having a poor understanding. The problem is one of the damages caused by alcohol whereby alcohol destabilizes processing unit of the brain known as the cerebral cortex making a communication to and from the sensory organs. Reaction times are slowed, making activities like getting behind the wheel of a car especially dangerous without a Low Cost Interlock device or other interceptive measures.
3. Thiamine Deficiency
Deficiency of vitamin B1 may lead to confusion effect in the brain, decrease in communication to the body muscles, as well as memory problems. The inadequacy is as a result of using alcohol that reduces absorption of thiamine, and it's limiting its usage in body cells: Thiamine is responsible for immune system boosting.
4. Affects the Balancing Controlled by Brain
The cerebellum is the brain part that’s responsible for controlling the body’s balance and movement. Alcohol affects this part leading to staggering, a condition that exposes a person to accidents such as falling or even road related accidents.
5. Slows Body Actions by Affecting Medulla Part
The medulla is responsible for many brain functions. The liveliness of a person may be affected when alcohol affects the brain. Activities such as consciousness, breathing, and many others may be slowed, leading to dizziness and eventually resulting sleep. That can be dangerous, especially at work since it leads to ineffectiveness.
6. Increases Sexual Urge
Despite the association of alcoholism with poor sexual performance, it ironically increases sexual urge. Alcohol affects the hypothalamus, a part of the brain responsible for controlling hormone release in the body. Under alcohol influence, section effectiveness is profoundly affected, making it difficult for the brain to regulate the hormones.
Records show that more than half of people convicted of rape cases in the USA were drunk at the time of the incidence. There are very high chances of people under the influence of alcohol to participate in risky unprotected sex activities; such cases can easily lead to infection of sexually related diseases such as HIV, gonorrhea and many others.
As the alcohol popularity rises, a large section of the population is at risk to unhealthy conditions resulting from alcoholism. Most hospitals have continued to record a high number of patients with alcohol-related problems. The effects of alcoholism have led to financial problems for some families as they cover frequent medical expenses for their addicted loved ones. Excessive consumption of alcohol may also lead to death.
With limiting drinking amounts being one of the recommendations to control the above effects, abstaining from alcoholism remains the ultimate solution.
It is true that effects of alchohol drinking are exactly the same as mentioned by Dr. Lawrence because I have met with these reactions. It is also not necessary that you will have to be heavy drinkers for these effects, even 2-3 drinks can give you such effects . Now, as I have minimized my consumption to only a single drink, I have felt the changes in me, and I am aiming to leave drinking completely. Now, I realise that alchol drinking not only effects brain and overall health, but also create financial problems and disturb family, professional, and social life. The risk of addiction and depression is always there, and once you are addicted then it becomes real difficult to come out of the addiction. So abstaining from alcoholism remains the ultimate solution, and it is true. Thank you for sharing.