Alcohol and the Brain #1: Effects on the cerebellum

Greetings Steemians! I thought it would be appropriate to show some of my knowledge as a junior med student here as much as I can. Apologies for my shortcomings as there is so much yet to learn and will do my best to improve my writing in the coming posts.

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I'm sure many of us are familiar with the things alcohol does to us: Slurred speeches, drunk walking, road accidents. Consuming excessive amounts of alcohol greatly affects how the different parts of our brain function, and the impairment of these functions lead to unwanted consequences on our physical and mental well being.

The brain works in away that it has an 'on' switch (excitatory), and an 'off' switch (inhibitory) to carry out its functions. These 'on' and 'off' signals are brought on by neurotransmitters: Glutamate mediates in activation and gamma-Aminobutyric acid (better known as GABA) does the inactivation part. Each of these neurotransmitters have their own receptors which will receive chemical inputs. Maintaining voluntary actions, which is what the cerebellum mainly does, requires the action of glutamate. GABA will normally inhibit these functions basically whenever we don't need them.

What alcohol does is that it binds to all these receptors, but has different effects on each type. The effects of glutamate become diminished but at the same time, the effects of GABA are also increased. This means that there is more inhibitory response going on than there is excitatory. Those important actions carried out by the cerebellum are affected: Reflex response is impaired, balance becomes affected, speech becomes slurred, and smooth movements are impaired.

These reduced functions are why drunk driving is so dangerous. Many are familiar with this fact as well. A driver with impaired cognitive function most like will not be able to quickly respond to a pedestrian crossing the road. In my country Malaysia for example, saw 478 of these accidents throughout 2017, compared to 380 in the previous year. In a medical standpoint we see this as a public health problem. It not only affects the victim, but also those in the wrong and the people around them.

So drink responsibly.