I heard that if you get drunk, the cells in your body stop functioning in terms of healing. If you get a cut, and then get drunk… will your cells stop functioning in the healing process during inebriation? will the alcohol change their process in any way?
I’m not sure about the cells not functioning properly, but I know in terms of cuts, you tend to bleed more and it takes longer to heal due to alcohol thinning your blood.
I’ve been told alcohol kills brain cells. Can anyone refute or substantiate this statement?
(Sorry, but I couldn’t find a website to back this up. I could loan out the text book I read it in upon request)
The reason alcohol makes you stupid is because it literally gets inbetween your nerve cells. Nerve cells don’t actually touch eachother, they just come really close together. When a signal reaches the end of one cell, it causes the release of special chemicals (neurotransmitters) into the gap between the neurons. If enough neurotranmitters reach the next cell, the second cell makes it’s own electrical signal that goes whipping down to the next.
Since the alcohol gets inbetween the cells, it blocks the neurotransmitters from reaching the next cell. The result is you walk funny, talk funny, and generally make and ass of yourself until you drink so much that your brain can’t maintain enough signalling to keep you concious. If you drink enough, you’ll shut down the signaling that monitors your breathing.
So there’s one effect of alcohol on cells. Another is the effect it has on your liver and kidneys, who are responsible for removing all that junk from your system.
Another is the vitamin deficiency that can result from regular drinking, usually a Vitamin A deficiency (because of a long metabolic process I won’t detail here). Loss of Vitamin A can lead to night blindness, as the photoreceptive cells of your eyes don’t have the means to function.
As far as repair of damage, I don’t know of anything in particular, but I can imagine that the general change in nutrition plays a part. Regular drinkers don’t usually get the recommended veggies, leading to deficiencies in a variety of areas, all having an impact on cell function.
If you’re willing to read scientific literature, you can check out PubMed