Think twice before adding ice - eviltoast
  • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49024/does-drinking-alcohol-kill-brain-cells

    “When this alcohol reaches the brain, it doesn’t kill the cells. What it does is inhibit the communication between dendrites, or branching connections at the ends of neurons that send and receive information between neurons, in the cerebellum, a part of the brain involved in motor coordination. This poor communication results in some of the typical impairments of intoxication. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that alcohol, even when applied directly to neurons, didn’t kill them. It just interfered with the way they transmit information. Specifically, the researchers showed that alcohol causes certain receptors on neurons to manufacture steroids that inhibit memory formation. “

    Nothing I said was incorrect as far as I can tell.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      8 months ago

      https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/this-is-your-brain-on-alcohol-2017071412000

      The body is a funny thing. You don’t need to kill a cell directly to cause cellular death, you can, for example, impair cellular fluid replenishment, short circuit repair functions, prevent replication, cause DNA damage that triggers immune responses, etc.

      Now, one of the problems with these studies is you can’t do brain biopsies on living subjects because of, you know, medical ethics, so it’s always possible the shrinkage is a result of fluid loss that just happens to impair memory as well, so the cells are technically alive, but useless.

      You very well might be correct that alcohol doesn’t directly kill brain cells, but I think you should ask yourself whether being correct on the technicalities is worth more than being correct on the results in this matter.

      There simply is not a safe amount of alcohol to consume for brain health.

      That’s why you should switch to LSD instead.

      • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I also wasn’t trying to say alcoholism is healthy anywhere, in fact I was saying the opposite. I don’t understand why you’re coming at me right now.

        But I’d be fine with switching to LSD as the social norm no problem, it’s more fun anyway. It’s just hard to find 12 hours to be high for haha