Alcohol abuse causes cognitive impairment. In a state of severe intoxication, a person loses the ability to think clearly, easily overcomes prohibitions and makes wrong decisions. One of the side effects of taking large doses of alcohol is complete or partial memory lapses. Let’s look at the causes of alcohol amnesia.
Mechanism of influence of alcohol on memory
In the first half of the 1950th century, scientists had not yet fully studied the processes that occur in the brain, so the mechanism of memory impairment was not completely clear. Progress began in the XNUMXs when researchers discovered that the hippocampus, part of the brain’s limbic system, is responsible for storing memories.
Since then, more than two thousand experiments have been conducted, which showed that 78% of people who drink regularly experienced such a phenomenon as memory lapses after alcohol.
Alcoholic drinks act on the central nervous system as a depressant – they relieve tension and suppress mental arousal. In the last two decades, scientists have shown that alcohol has a stronger effect on a number of areas of the brain, including the hippocampus. Ethanol inhibits and damages CA1 cells, which are extremely important for the formation of memories, and also suppresses the ability of neurons to transmit signals to the hippocampus from other parts of the brain. As a result, during severe intoxication, the memory of the events simply does not remain.
At the first stages of alcohol abuse, short-term memory suffers: a person loses a thought, often repeats himself, and the next day he cannot remember anything. Long-term memories in this case remain in their original form. After the withdrawal of ethanol from the body, brain functions are restored in full.
Chronic alcoholism leads to the gradual destruction of hippocampal cells, which affects the overall ability to remember the facts and events of the current life and prevents the extraction of long-term memories from the brain’s kind of “stores”. To make matters worse, people who drink are often deficient in thiamine, which is important for the normal functioning of hippocampal cells.
Causes of thiamine deficiency:
- unhealthy or malnutrition;
- ethanol damage to the gastrointestinal tract, which prevents the absorption of nutrients;
- vomiting with severe alcohol poisoning.
A lack of thiamine can lead to the development of dementia, which is characterized by progressive memory loss. Often, constant alcohol abuse leads to the development of Wernicke-Korsakov syndrome, an acute mental disorder when an alcoholic completely loses the ability to remember information.
Although alcohol can indeed cause memory loss, very often people (especially young people) simply lie that they do not remember anything after drinking, as they are ashamed of their behavior and do not want to explain anything.
Risk group
The elderly are most vulnerable to the damaging effects of alcohol. With age, metabolism slows down, ethanol is excreted from the body much more slowly, and hippocampal cells take longer to recover. The situation can be exacerbated by the regular use of drugs that interact with alcohol and worsen the condition.
Factors contributing to memory lapses:
- drinking alcohol on an empty stomach;
- diseases of the central nervous system;
- avitaminosis;
- taking drugs, antidepressants.
Alcoholic amnesia is difficult to treat, as dead cells cannot be restored. The disease requires long-term therapy in a clinic and the help of a psychiatrist. Physicians from the US National University of Health over the past decade have published a number of reports with evidence that abstinence from alcohol for a year leads to a partial correction of disorders in the structure of the brain.
How to avoid memory lapses
Surrogates and counterfeit alcohol have a destructive effect on the brain. Buy alcohol only in trusted stores and choose drinks with a high degree of protection. Avoid using moonshine, homemade tinctures, if you are not sure of their quality. At the first signs of poisoning (dizziness, darkening of the eyes), immediately clear the stomach.
The harmful effects of alcohol on memory can be avoided if you follow a few simple rules:
- limit the dose of alcohol;
- do not mix drinks of different strength and composition;
- drink as much pure non-carbonated water as possible.
At the first signs of intoxication, try to move more, take a walk in the fresh air, and avoid smoking. Partially neutralize the effect of ethanol will help detoxification agents: activated carbon, adsorbents. In the future, include foods that improve cognitive functions in your diet: dark chocolate, avocados, seafood, nuts and seeds.
Attention! Self-medication can be dangerous, consult your doctor.