Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Booze Doesn't Kill Brain Cells


Myth: Alcohol kills brain cells. Now, to qualify that title, pure alcohol will absolutely kill brain cells and many other types of cells, which is why it is used as a disinfectant. However, recent research has shown that the quantity of alcohol you could possibly take in, without killing yourself, does not introduce enough alcohol into your bloodstream to kill brain cells.

This was proven by a study by Grethe Jensen and co. (1993), who meticulously counted neurons in matched samples of non-alcoholics and alcoholics. What they found was that there was no real difference in the density or overall number of neurons between the two groups.

MY CONCLUSION: Falling down drunk and hitting your head would kill a few but at least alcohol didn't kill them directly. Now... let's talk about liver cells.