how bad is alcohol for you and specifically the brain, what about weed?

Question

i know E depletes serotonin levels in brain making people more suseptoble to depression, but what about alcohol a drug nearly all of us use every week!! What does booze do to the mind. Because with my hangover yesterday I felt like how lord vaders boss the emporer looks like.

Answer 1

weed is a drug, because it alters your mind. I do not know how it affects brain cells, but it changes your state of mind. It gives you no motivation, so I would say don't try it and don't do it anymore. Alcohol kills brain cells and develops an addiction to it. Not to mention what it does to your liver and other organs. If you stay away from this stuff you will live a healthier life. I don't drink at all. Obviously if you drink a really extremely high proof of alcohol and you can get blind from it, alcohol is not good!!!!!! i recommend not doing either of these.

Answer 2

Alcohol depresses the central nervous system. This affects both superior functions, such as thinking and judgement, and base functions such as temperature control and motor function. It also has a long half life in the body - as much as 24 hours. Even simple tasks such as waving your finger in time to some music demands much more processing energy, and scans show use up more parts of the brain to make up the deficit. The frontal lobes of heavy drinkers/alcoholics (basically the part which says you should not do that when about to do something stupid) - show atrophy when cut up after death. These areas are also by passed when someone is intoxicated.
As for weed, the jury is out, but if you are depressed, it can make it worse and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the bad effect on personality, even after use has stopped. As a friend of mine said of her son 'He has lost his sparkle. I have to accept he will never be the same again.' Also it majorly screws you immune system.

Answer 3

My friend, I think I'm having a hard time telling exactly what you're asking, but maybe the following info will help you draw your own conclusions:

Alcohol: Has the effects it does because it dissolves cell membranes. Inebriation is a result of very sensitive nerve cells getting a little damaged and not being able to perform their duties normally. You can always tell a drinker by their big red swollen nose - that nose is red because alcohol over time has dissolved the tiny capillaries and allowed blood to seep out....

If you want more info on THC: Google "Dopamine reward system"

Answer 4

I don't know what age you are but I am 46 and I tend to drink alcohol at around the 4 % mark because any higher gives me a feeling the next day I would rather not have. Brain damage? Yes it is

Answer 5

Your body starts to excrete booze within a short while of drinking it, Weed stays in your body for a long time.

Answer 6

Hangovers have nothing to do with the brain.

When you drink, your liver metabolizes the alcohol and through the process a chemical called acetaldehyde is created. This chemical is toxic and then converted to harmless acetic acid. Since acetaldehyde is toxic, while it's in your system, it will make you feel aweful until further metabolized to acetic acid, hence the term "hangover".

As per the damage alcohol can cause within your liver, chronic drinking taxes the metabolic pathway in the liver which is where things go awry: fatty acids build up as plaques in the capillaries around liver cells and those cells begin to die, which leads to the liver disease cirrhosis. The liver is part of the body's filtration system and if it is damaged then certain toxins build up, thus leading to symptoms of jaundice (yellowing of the skin).

Here are some problems that are can occur in the brain;

The effect alcohol has on the NMDA receptors, earlier responsible for pleasurable stimulation, turns from a blessing to a curse if too much alcohol is consumed. NMDA receptors start to become unresponsive, slowing thought in the areas of the brain they are responsible for. Contributing to this effect is the activity which alcohol induces in the gamma-aminobutyric acid system (GABA). The GABA system is known to inhibit activity in the brain. GABA could also be responsible for the memory impairment that many people experience. It has been asserted that GABA signals interfere with the registration and consolidation stages of memory formation. As the GABA system is found in the hippocampus, (among other areas in the CNS), which is thought to play a large role in memory formation, this is thought to be possible.

Blurred vision is another common symptom of drunkenness. Alcohol seems to suppress the metabolism of glucose in the brain. The occipital lobe, the part of the brain responsible for receiving visual inputs, has been found to become especially impaired, consuming 29 % less glucose than it should. With less glucose metabolism, it is thought that the cells aren't able to process images properly.

Often, after much alcohol has been consumed, it is possible to experience vertigo, the sense that the room is spinning (referred to in certain circles as 'The Spins'). This is associated with abnormal eye movements called nystagmus, specifically positional alcohol nystagmus. In this case, alcohol has affected the organs responsible for balance (vestibular system), present in the ears. Balance in the body is monitored principally by two systems: the semicircular canals, and the utricle and saccule pair. Inside both of these is a flexible blob called a cupula, which moves when the body moves. This brushes against hairs in the ear, creating nerve impulses that travel through the vestibulocochlear nerve (Cranial nerve VIII) in to the brain. However, when alcohol gets in to the bloodstream it distorts the shape of the cupola, causing it to keep pressing on to the hairs. The abnormal nerve impulses tell the brain that the body is rotating, causing disorientation and making the eyes spin round to compensate. When this wears off (usually taking until the following morning) the brain has adjusted to the spinning, and interprets not spinning as spinning in the opposite direction causing further disorientation. This is often a common symptom of the hangover.

Another classic finding of alcohol intoxication is ataxia, in its appendicular, gait, and truncal forms. Appendicular ataxia results in jerky, uncoordinated movements of the limbs, as though each muscle were working independently from the others. Truncal ataxia results in postural instability; gait instability is manifested as a disorderly, wide-based gait with inconsistent foot positioning. Ataxia is responsible for the observation that drunk people are clumsy, sway back and forth, and often fall down. It is probably due to alcohol's effect on the cerebellum.

Extreme overdoses can lead to alcohol poisoning and death due to respiratory depression.

A rare complication of acute alcohol ingestion is Wernicke encephalopathy, a disorder of thiamine metabolism. If not treated with thiamine, Wernicke encephalopathy can progress to Korsakoff psychosis, which is irreversible.

Chronic alcohol ingestion over many years can produce atrophy of the vermis, which is the part of the cerebellum responsible for coordinating gait; vermian atrophy produces the classic gait findings of alcohol intoxication even when its victim is not inebriated.

Severe drunkenness and diabetic coma can be mistaken for each other on casual inspection, with potentially serious medical consequences for diabetics. The major physical finding they share is the sickly-sweet odour of ketosis on the breath; alcoholic ketosis and diabetic ketosis are both marked by the presence of acetone and other ketones in the bloodstream, although the ketones are produced by different metabolic pathways in each disorder. Measurement of the serum glucose and ethanol concentrations in comatose individuals is routinely performed in the emergency department and easily distinguishes the two conditions.

I've read up on weed and to some it up; excessive smoking causes long term BRAIN DAMAGE.

good luck

Answer 7

I use to smoke pot everyday and and night and yes it does mess with memory when you get older I forget everything and drinking is also bad for your liver and you get kidneys wasted and then you get diabetes I see it all the time millions are people have to go on dialysis

Answer 8

Alcohol definitely can mess with your head the day after! I can relate to that! However, weed & alcohol overall won't mess with you long term. Your mind is constantly creating new cells. The one caveat is addiction to alcohol!

Answer 9

It can be just as bad if you drink enough.

Answer 10

they are terrible!!! you could die from them and your breath will stink after you use them!!!! so dont if you are thinking about it!!!