What does drinking do to the nervous system?

The negative effects of booze are too many to count. When it comes to inflicting neurological damage, both acute intoxication and chronic alcoholism can promote widespread neural damage and cell death. 

It doesn’t matter how much you drink; alcohol triggers degeneration across your central nervous system.

Here’s why heavy drinking is bad for your central nervous system:

1. Alcohol causes widespread inflammation in the brain.
2. It causes cerebral atrophy. 
3. It impairs synaptic plasticity.
4. It disrupts neurotransmitters.
5. It increases the risk of neurological disorders.
6. It impairs motor skills and coordination. 
7. It damages the hippocampus. 
8. It alters the brain’s blood flow.
9. It causes vitamin B deficiency (Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome).

One: excessive drinking causes neuroinflammation

Booze sparks neuroinflammation in so many ways. Ethanol and its metabolites directly trigger oxidative stress and cell death signaling cascades among neurons, enabling inflammation to rage on. Researchers show that “chronic alcohol consumption induced microglia activation and peripheral macrophage infiltration in the CNS, particularly in the hippocampus.” This nonstop alcohol-fueled neural assault impairs mood, memory, and clear thinking. 

A 2022 study found that alcohol also triggers neuroinflammation by tampering with the anti-inflammatory responses of your exogenous and endogenous cannabinoid signaling in the endocannabinoid system. 

If left unchecked, this self-perpetuating cycle of neural inflammation and damage can culminate in neurodegenerative outcomes.

Two: alcohol can shrink brain volume

Did you know your brain can actually shrink in size due to alcohol? Your brain naturally loses volume as you get older, but binge drinking can accelerate this process.

Repetitive spikes and crashes in alcohol levels bombard your neurons and rapidly exhaust your cells in planning, problem-solving, and memory areas. The brain struggles as it tries to achieve homeostasis after each bender. Over months, the perpetual metabolic stress causes neural circuits to atrophy: neurons die, connections unlink, and tissue scaffolds wither. 

According to research, “heavy drinkers had significantly shrunken frontal lobes compared with abstainers.” A 2022 study found that “alcohol intake is negatively associated with global brain volume measures, regional gray matter volumes, and white matter microstructure.” Atrophied prefrontal cortexes and withered hippocampi in chronic drinkers are linked to weaker organizational skills and memory.

Three: chronic alcohol abuse impairs neural plasticity

Your brain constantly rewires circuits to adapt to new learning. This is called plasticity and it’s crucial for acquiring new skills and encoding memories. Alcohol disrupts your brain’s remodeling by flooding hippocampal synapses and hampering plasticity mechanisms vital for memory formation. When you drink, your brain diverts energy to deal with alcohol’s toxins rather than nurture new connections. 

Plastic mechanisms are particularly active in the hippocampus, an inner brain region vital for learning. Leuner and Gould show that the hippocampus is the most vulnerable to ethanol flooding nerve synapses, while Bell, et. al. reveal that excessive activity of the neurotransmitter glutamate “alters synaptic plasticity, learning, memory, and stimulus conditioning associated with the development of alcohol and substance use disorders.”

Four: alcohol use disrupts chemical signaling

Speaking of neurotransmitters, alcohol hijacks the chemical messengers that orchestrate your every thought, feeling, and action. It disrupts their production over time, paving the way for addictive behaviors and alcoholism—numbing some, over-exciting others, and triggering vicious cycles of deficiency and cell damage. 

Here’s the lowdown on alcohol’s terrible effects on neurotransmitters:

• Excessive glutamatergic stimulation during alcohol withdrawal can induce toxicity and excitotoxic damage to neurons.
• Alcohol enhances GABAergic relaxing and sedative effects initially, but chronic drinking reduces GABA function, depleting crucial signaling mechanisms in the CNS.
• Short-term alcohol boosts dopamine levels, overstimulating your brain’s pleasure center. Chronic booze dysregulates dopamine, erodes motivation, and increases the risk of addiction.
• Alcohol consumption interferes with serotonin activity associated with improving mood and feelings of well-being. That’s why, when you’re addicted to alcohol, your mental health suffers. 

Five: heavy drinking promotes neurological disorders

Years of heavy alcohol abuse can culminate in an array of insidious brain disorders, ranging from strokes to permanent memory loss, by starving, inflaming, and eroding neural structures. Ethanol prunes neuron connections over time, directly poisoning cells, depleting regenerative nutrient reservoirs, and causing the protective myelin sheaths around your neurons to wither. 

A 2020 study hints at some sinister connections between heavy drinking and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Alcohol triggers inflammatory and cell-killing cascades in the brain that also destroy proper nerve function in these conditions. 

Crews reveals that long-term alcohol consumption can inflict pervasive damage across delicate neural structures controlling personality, judgment, movements, and vital processes. 

Six: alcohol damages movement and coordination 

Alcohol’s sneaky effects on movement and coordination stem from the widespread damage to parts of your brain that keep muscles running smoothly. Your balance, coordination, and motor skills are controlled by the cerebellum. Years down the road, brain-to-body messages strain through spotty wiring unable to orchestrate fluid movement or balance. 

Excessive alcohol exposure results in cerebellar ataxia and alterations in hand movements, speed when striking a target, impaired postural stability and balance, and slower attenuated foot taping. (Luo)

Your neurons can’t seamlessly do their job, causing signals to misfire between your brain and your muscles. Hence the clumsiness, a lack of coordination, and even slurred speech.

Seven: heavy alcohol use harms the memory center

Chronic alcohol misuse has negative effects on your memory. As the hippocampus and frontal lobes get bogged down by alcohol, concentration and memory start to stutter. The hippocampus is responsible for learning new information and forming memories. Damage to the hippocampus causes severe short- and long-term memory impairments. 

Individuals with heavier drinking patterns had a larger rate hippo-parahippocampal volume decline. This higher rate of GMV decline in the hippocampus was associated with poorer memory, and with greater number of memory blackouts. (Meda, et. al.)

People with alcohol-damaged hippocampus may frequently repeat themselves, forget appointments or obligations, and struggle with learning. 

Eight: heavy alcohol consumption alters blood flow in the brain

For your entire CNS to work properly, you need great blood circulation. The bad news is, alcohol restricts blood flow to the brain, reducing oxygen and nutrients nerves desperately need. Reduced blood flow to the brain and the spinal cord can contribute to tissue damage and dysfunction.

Pervin and Stephen found that alcohol intoxication causes changes in the configuration of endothelial cells in the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Alcohol disrupts the critical filtering mechanism that controls transport between blood and brain fluid. Over the years, nerves slowly starve and accumulate toxic byproducts without enough blood-borne cleaning crews on site. 

Read more about the devastating effects of alcohol on your cardiovascular system.

Nine: large amounts of alcohol lead to vitamin B deficiency

Your nerves need vitamin B, or thiamine, to keep growing and functioning. It also plays a key role in producing energy within cells and conducting signals along nerve fibers. Heavy drinking leaches vitamin B from your body. 

Deficient nerves essentially “short circuit” during transmission as myelin sheaths deteriorate and circulation slows. You may experience weakness, numbness, and excruciating leg pain. Without vitamin B reserves, deadly Wernicke’s encephalopathy may eventually set in, inflicting permanent psychiatric and memory disorders. 

Langlais believes that thiamine deficiency might be “one factor contributing to the cognitive deficits and brain pathology characteristic of [Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome].”

If you think your central nervous system shows any signs of alcohol-induced damage, now is a good time for a change. Our inpatient program helps you overcome addiction and alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Here at Ardu, you will learn healthy coping strategies to deal with alcohol cravings. After completing the inpatient portion, you can continue on the road to recovery with our intensive outpatient program.

Reach out and change your life for the better.