- #1
zoobyshoe
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There's a common belief that every glass of alcohol you drink kills a certain number of brain cells.
This is a myth I thought I'd clear up here, one that results from a severe condition sometimes seen in chronic alcoholics called Wernicke-Korsakov's Syndrome.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/wernicke_korsakoff/wernicke-korsakoff.htm
The alcohol, itself, is not killing any neurons. The problem is that chronic drinking causes malabsorption of thiamine, coupled with the fact that many chronic alcoholics eat erratically and poorly. It is thiamine (vitamin B-1) deficiency that causes the neurological problems, not the consumption of alcohol itself. Alcohol doesn't kill brain cells.
This is a myth I thought I'd clear up here, one that results from a severe condition sometimes seen in chronic alcoholics called Wernicke-Korsakov's Syndrome.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/wernicke_korsakoff/wernicke-korsakoff.htm
Symptoms include amnesia, confabulation, attention deficit, disorientation, and vision impairment. The main features of Korsakoff's amnesic syndrome are the impairments in acquiring new information or establishing new memories, and in retrieving previous memories. Although Wernicke's and Korsakoff's may appear to be two different disorders, they are generally considered to be different stages of the same disorder, which is called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Wernicke's encephalopathy represents the "acute" phase of the disorder, and Korsakoff's amnesic syndrome represents the "chronic" phase.
The alcohol, itself, is not killing any neurons. The problem is that chronic drinking causes malabsorption of thiamine, coupled with the fact that many chronic alcoholics eat erratically and poorly. It is thiamine (vitamin B-1) deficiency that causes the neurological problems, not the consumption of alcohol itself. Alcohol doesn't kill brain cells.