How Alcohol Affects Your Brain

You are at dinner party sipping a glass of rich red and feeling the ease that comes with it. One drink becomes two. Everybody talks, laughs and there is no more tension in the room. But as your mind relaxes, your body goes through different processes of chemical shifts and subtle disruptions.

Have you ever wondered why alcohol changes how you feel? Let’s turn to science to understand how alcohol affects our brains.

It all starts with your liver. After the first sip enters your body, your liver immediately begins working to break down the alcohol. There is an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which metabolizes the alcohol and transforms it into a very toxic substance called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is basically a poison – it damages DNA, proteins, and cells. But then comes NAD+ that accepts electrons and is reduced to NADH. Later, your body uses NADH to make energy that your cells can use.

The truth is if your body can’t run this process fast enough, acetaldehyde will build up in your body and cause even more damage. So, be careful with heavy drinking!

Alcohol is both water- and fat-soluble. It means it has a direct access to cells and can pass through cell membranes effortlessly. So, as alcohol reaches your brain through bloodstream and passes blood-brain barrier, the other process begins there. It starts by enhancing GABA, the brain’s main calming neurotransmitter. GABA slows down neuron activity, making you feel relaxed, less anxious, and more uninhibited. That’s why the first few drinks feel… easy. You are still at the party diving into conversations and enjoying the moment. But the process didn’t stop. As GABA activity increases, alcohol brings a slight suppression in the activity of neurons in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex relies on glutamate (another neurotransmitter) to help brain cells talk and work properly for things like planning, thinking, and controlling impulsive behavior. When you drink alcohol, it messes with glutamate signals, making the prefrontal cortex less active. This is why your thinking, decision-making, and self-control get blurry when you’re drunk.

Another alcohol’s effect on your brain is the ability to blur memory. Have you ever experienced a blackout after a night-out? You surely can blame alcohol here. It suppresses the neural networks in hippocampus, the brain area involved in forming and storing memories. If you drink enough alcohol, it causes the temporary block of the memory transfer. This process is known as memory consolidation.

There’s one more reason why a glass of great wine feels so good. It’s dopamine. Alcohol taps into your brain’s reward system and releases “feel-good” chemical that creates happiness you might feel after drinking. However, this effect can have a very high risk of an addiction. The dopamine rush from alcohol strengthens drinking behavior, making your brain associate alcohol with pleasure. Over time, this can lead to craving alcohol and drinking more frequently.

Talking about long-terms effects of heavy alcohol drinking I can’t be positive. By time alcohol reduces the size of neurons, dulls emotional regulation and over time reduces the acuity of thinking and memory. Need to mention, that adolescent brains are more vulnerable. Alcohol can alert brain development making changes in brain structure and function.

Beside this all, alcohol is not just a villain for us. It has become a symbol of celebration. But knowing what’s happening inside you when you drink helps to stop at the right point. So, the next time you’re at a dinner party and someone pours you a glass, enjoy it. Remember what’s happening beneath the surface and drink with awareness knowing when to stop!