Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The brain is a major target for the actions of alcohol, and heavy alcohol consumption has long been associated with brain damage. Studies clearly indicate that alcohol is neurotoxic, with direct effects on nerve cells. Chronic alcohol abusers are at additional risk for brain injury from related causes, such as poor nutrition, liver disease, and ...
The short-term effects of alcohol consumption range from a decrease in anxiety and motor skills and euphoria at lower doses to intoxication (drunkenness), to stupor, unconsciousness, anterograde amnesia (memory "blackouts"), and central nervous system depression at higher doses. Cell membranes are highly permeable to alcohol, so once it is in ...
Alcohol intoxication, also known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, [ 1 ] commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, [ 9 ] is the behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. [ 6 ][ 10 ] In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main psychoactive component of alcoholic beverages, other physiological symptoms ...
Alcohol acts as a general central nervous system depressant, but it also affects some specific areas of the brain to a greater extent than others. Memory impairment caused by alcohol has been linked to the disruption of hippocampal function—particularly affecting gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) neurotransmission which negatively impacts long-term potentiation ...
Alcohol (also known as ethanol) has a number of effects on health. Short-term effects of alcohol consumption include intoxication and dehydration. Long-term effects of alcohol include changes in the metabolism of the liver and brain, several types of cancer and alcohol use disorder. [ 1 ] Alcohol intoxication affects the brain, causing slurred ...
The level of ethanol consumption that minimizes the risk of disease, injury, and death is subject to some controversy. [16] Several studies have found a J-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and health, [17] [18] [2] [19] meaning that risk is minimized at a certain (non-zero) consumption level, and drinking below or above this level increases risk, with the risk level of drinking a ...
Long-term, stable consequences of chronic hazardous alcohol use are thought to be due to stable alterations of gene expression resulting from epigenetic changes within particular regions of the brain. [26][27][28] For example, in rats exposed to alcohol for up to 5 days, there was an increase in histone 3 lysine 9 acetylation in the ...
The kindling effect leads to persistent functional changes in brain neural circuits as well as to gene expression. [78] Kindling also results in the intensification of psychological symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. [76] There are decision tools and questionnaires that help guide physicians in evaluating alcohol withdrawal.