Alcohol and Brain Health

Brain Awareness Week, March 16-22, offers an opportunity to look at all the lifestyle factors that support healthy cognition, as well as those may be harmful. Although we can’t fully control the way our brain ages, dementia and other cognition problems are by no means a normal part of aging.

We now have a better scientific understanding of the daily lifestyle choices that help protect the brain, as well as those that harm it.

One of the most common “brain offenders” is alcohol, which operates as a neurotoxin. Neurotoxins are substances that damage, destroy, or impair the function of the nervous system, including the brain and neurons.

Alcohol disrupts brain communication, leading to immediate impairment—such as slurred speech and poor coordination—as well as long-term damage, including brain shrinkage and cognitive decline.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), chronic drinking also damages brain cells, impairs memory, and can cause permanent neurological impairment.

In the short-term, alcohol increases gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and dopamine, initially causing relaxation but quickly leading to impaired judgment, memory blackouts, and poor motor control, elevating the risk of accidents and many other problems.

The long-term effects are even more worrisome. Heavy, habitual consumption can cause permanent structural damage, including brain atrophy. Also called cerebral atrophy, this refers to a loss of neurons and the connections between them, resulting in the shrinking of brain tissue and volume. In fact, recent science indicates that alcoholic brain damage is much more common than previously suspected.

Affecting different brain regions, alcohol-related bran atrophy affects balance and coordination, memory, judgment, and impulse control. It also often causes personality changes, one’s “drunk persona,” which for men may include greater tendencies toward violence, as one 2021 study found.