Does Alcohol Kill Brain Cells? [VIDEO]

For many years, YouTube has been an entertaining source for people to learn something new. Here on The Inquisitr, we supported such learning endeavors by reporting on some of the more popular videos that taught viewers. This includes the scientific way to cut a cake – as presented by the Numberphile – as well as myths about the human brain debunked.

Now there is a new video that teaches its viewers a question that has been used as volley for prohibitionists and avoided by alcohol enthusiasts. That question is if alcohol kills brain cells.

Uploaded on the YouTube Channel SciShow on August 26, 2014, the video already has 200 thousand views with 8.2 thousand liking it. Almost 100 people don’t care if their brain cells die from alcohol. Also, the video is on the list for the Most Popular on YouTube as of the publication of this article.

The video starts out stating the historical facts of this question which has been asked for decades. Used as fire for prohibitionists, alcohol has been associated to kill brain cells because of how people may react when alcohol not removed by the liver reaches the brain. Contrary to popular thought, alcohol doesn’t kill brain cells but they do damage dendrites which are the branches of a neuron (brain cell) that is responsible for sending the messages to other parts of the body such as talking and moving. Damaged dendrites limit the ability of neurons to communicate thus why people who are drunk have slurred speech and a stagger in their swagger.

Fortunately for all of us, dendrite damage is reversible, so that is not a problem. But it should also be reported that drinking large quantities of alcohol will damage other parts of your body such as your liver. So in conclusion, alcohol doesn’t kill brain cells… but it does kill other parts of your body.

What did you think about this educational video? Did you find what SciShow taught to be informative or was it just fodder that really doesn’t matter in the long run? Please let us know in the comments below.