Can you ever really reverse the effects of alcohol?

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While most of us enjoy a cocktail every now and then, it turns out the effect that alcohol can have on your brain may be irrevocably damaging.

We know that alcohol is bad for us and we certainly can feel it after a heavy night of drinking, but at high doses it can  actually impair cognitive function, memory recall and even lead to organ failure. 

When you drink a lot and frequently, how badly does your body suffer? Can it ever fully bounce back after it’s been damaged past a certain point? 

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Dr. George Koob, the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, says that just about any medical malady is made worse by excessive alcohol use.

“Alcohol kills cells just about everywhere in your body. It leads to a fatty liver, which leads to a loss of cells in the liver and ultimately what’s called cirrhosis liver, which can be fatal. It can cause pancreatitis and it can cause problems with the heart. It can facilitate cancer and even diabetes in high doses.” 

While it can affect any part of the body, Dr. Koob says it’s most damaging to the brain and liver. Our liver doesn’t recover very readily past a certain point and that’s why people with severe alcohol problems need liver transplants.

“Alcohol is metabolized in the liver and so it really engages the enzymes that are used for other things. There’s a whole sequence of inflammatory events that also occur in the liver.”

When it comes to the brain, the problem becomes even more complicated. 

Dr. Koob says when you look at a person’s brain with no history of alcoholism they use a very circumscribed circuit that goes from the front end of your brain to the back end - kind of like a fast moving highway. When you look at the brain of a recovered alcoholic they have a much more confused network to get to the same place. 

“It’s kind of like when you have to do physical therapy for a muscle. You’re using and strengthening another system to compensate. You don’t grow back the neurons that die, you strengthen other systems.”

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According to Dr. Koob, there is a point of severity that you can’t recover from. 

Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome is a disorder that occurs when someone drinks for long periods of time and doesn’t eat properly. The neurological condition involves a nutritional deficit, especially in thiamine.

“You’ve lost those cells in your hippocampus, which is part of the brain that lays down new memories or helps consolidate memories and those don’t grow back.” 

Dr. Koob suggests alcohol is incredibly damaging because it’s a small molecule and miscible in water. It can easily get into your blood and acts on a variety of different parts of cellular mechanisms.  

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He also says a big part of the problem is that a lot of people with alcohol use disorder don’t get the proper treatment. If a person with a chronic moderate to high alcohol use disorder gets into a recovery program and doesn’t drink for a year or two there is a recovery of function.

“Everyone’s recovery is different and it’s safe to say the longer you’ve been abstinent generally the safer you are. But it’s always a work in progress.”

According to the World Health Organization alcohol is one of the leading causes of health problems in the world. A significant issue is that people don’t know what they’re drinking and how it’s affecting their body. 

“The earlier interventions occur, the better people do later in life. The bottom line is everything in moderation.”