Causes of 'memory loss' when drunk

After the overbearing cup of tea, many people, especially men, woke up with a throbbing head and did not remember what had happened to them other than being empty with someone. This means they have lost memory or temporarily lost consciousness when drunk.

However, what exactly happened to the brain when suffering from "falling" owners because of alcohol? Here is the explanation of experts:

Impact on the brain

Anyone who is familiar with drunken parties will experience or witness someone temporarily losing his memory after being awake (blackout) . However, not all of these temporary memory loss events are the same, but are divided into two "partial" and "whole" categories .

In particular, partial memory loss, sometimes called "distraction" , makes drunken people unable to remember events in short periods of time, but they can often restore their memories if possible. remind again. In contrast, the whole form of amnesia related to the absence of memories of events over longer periods of time and "misery" cannot recall them even though they are recalled.

Both types of memory loss are believed to originate from the same cause: neurological and physiological disorders in the hippocampus , a region of the brain associated with memory formation. Alcohol has disturbed the glutamate transmission activity (chemical signaling between nerve cells) of receptors in the hippocampus. During this intervention, alcohol prevents some active receptors from activating, while activating other receptors.

Alcohol causes chemical disorders and neurophysiology in the hippocampus of the brain (blue in the image).

This process causes neurons to produce steroids, which will later prevent them from communicating with each other appropriately, leading to the destruction of long-term potential (LTP) , a process believed to be weak for learning and remembering.

Simply put, the effect is similar to the anterograde amnesia , in which patients forget because their brains lose the ability to record and create new memories. People who lose their memory temporarily due to intoxication can still participate in lively discussions or even send emails late at night to their former boss, but what they can't do is create memories of activities. there.

Of course, temporary memory loss due to intoxication tends to imply serious drunkenness and during that time, drunk people have no best judgment, increasing the risk of carrying out dangerous behaviors such as unsafe sex or loss of consciousness when driving.

Can temporary dementia be prevented due to intoxication?

Similar to many other problems related to drinking alcohol, we can reduce and even prevent temporary memory loss due to drunkenness with a full stomach . Not eating anything will make our blood alcohol level rise much faster.

Drinking less and slower is also helpful . Studies show that the main culprit that people who are drunk do not remember anything after that is the rapid collection and too much alcohol into the blood.

Compared to men, it is difficult for women to prevent temporary memory loss due to drunkenness. This is because their blood alcohol content increases faster than that of men. In addition to the tendency to have less water in the body to disperse alcohol, they also have less amount of enzymes that break the alcohol in the stomach than men.

Experts also noted that people are more susceptible to dementia because they are more intoxicated when they experience this condition, so people are advised to stop "drinking" for a while after having dementia because of drunkenness. However, basically, the best way to completely avoid this situation is to not drink too much alcohol or at least drink more slowly.

Dementia due to drunkenness is the sign of alcoholism?

EM Jellinek, an expert who started the first major study of drunken dementia in the 1940s, believes that this condition is a sure sign of addiction. However, more recent research indicates that this view does not seem right. Sometimes people who are too cupful are at risk of experiencing dementia due to drunkenness such as those who "drink alcohol" or drink too much alcohol every day.

Basically, dementia is caused by drunkenness due to a sudden increase in blood alcohol levels, although researchers also found evidence to reveal, some people seem to have a pronounced "genetic substance". into this situation.

In addition, frequent memory loss due to intoxication should not be overlooked. In addition to being able to cause employers to engage in suspicious behavior, they may regret it when they remember, whenever they change the basic function of the brain in such a way, they also make them vulnerable to long-term damage.