A consistent amount of excessive drinking can cause thiamine deficiencies and can develop serious and persistent changes within the brain. If someone doesn't get a brain deficiency at first they can still get one from liver damage. Thiamine in the brain is a necessity for tissues throughout the body. Studies have shown that women have a higher vulnerability to damages throughout the body than men do (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2004). Although females have shown greater vulnerability, both genders have shown approximately the same amount of brain shrinkage.
Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome has two diseases within it. If someone gets Wernicke Syndrome, they are more likely to get Korsakoff Syndrome. People with this disease are more likely to not remember very much and are usually alcohol abusers. They cannot pay attention to much of what is going on and have a hard time being interested in life; they are indifferent about much going on in their life (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2004). Having a deficiency in thiamine is a major cause of obtaining the disease. The disease plays with the the person's mind and even how their eyes react.
You would think that cirrhosis would be one of the first liver diseases that comes to someone's mind, but oddly, it is not. Most excessive drinkers do not think about actually having this problem. People mostly just think about general liver damage, but cirrhosis can also affect the brain and how it performs. Hepatic encephalopathy can be caused by cirrhosis due to damaged liver cells effecting the brain cells. Hepatic encephalopathy can cause depression, effect someone's attention span and coordination, amongst other things (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2004). There is treatment one can have their doctor issue, such as, using a liver-assist device to get rid of the toxins within the body. Liver transplant is also an option although there are always waiting lists the patient must be on before actually receiving the organ.
It is important to understand diseases and future problems that come along with excessive alcohol use so we can try to prevent these things from happening. Yes, we are in college and it is our time to be adults and have fun, but we also need to be healthy not just for now, but in our future, too. All of this hard work and money put into our schooling would go completely to waste if we constantly had severe health problems throughout our lives and couldn't even enjoy them then! What would be the point of going to school then? Nothing. We need to put our body's first and keep ourselves healthy.
Reference: ALCOHOL'S DAMAGING EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016, from http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm
