Ever wondered why people misbehave when they take alcohol?? Yes, you should have. Alcoholism is a general phenomenon and can be found anywhere in the world between people of different races. Anyone that drinks have a reason for drinking either to clear their head, to give them a morale boost for something they couldn't do in their normal senses, some even to toast to the success of an event amongst many others...
After a deep thinking some time ago, I was unable to figure out how it makes people go out of their minds and do stupid things and most times when you finally tell those people what they did when they were drunk, they would be like "I did that? You don't mean it." Like they don't recall doing those things. That one was a pointer to me, I didn't know what caused the misbehaviour but I do know for sure that if one is unable to remember something, we blame the brain for it. So, I detected that that means there's a lag in the brain and that it wasn't able to keep up with the person's activity - that's one and maybe the lag was responsible for the misbehaviour too, I had to find out and that was I started working on this topic.
The activity of the brain after a drink or two has been able to give a lead or even a better explanation of drunken aggression. I used aggression because it's a type of misbehaviour and most of the crimes committed in recent years have been said to be caused by the influence of alcohol. Some might be true and others might just have used it as an escape route for court charges.
The real deal is "what happens in the brain when I, when you, take alcohol?" The prefrontal cortex of the brain has the answer. The prefrontal cortex of the brain happens to be one of the most developed areas of the brain as it controls our decision-making, our emotions, our will to live, amongst other great functions. Now, notice that I mentioned the decision-making first because it's what we need the most in this study. This means we need the prefrontal cortex to make decisions and what if the prefrontal cortex is knocked out?? What happens then?
After conducting a fMRI- functional magnetic resonance imaging scan on two set of people; [1] People that drank at least 2-3 Vodka drinks and [2] people that drank regular and non-alcoholic drinks, these were their results/findings:
[1] The prefrontal cortex was dampened and so the activities of the prefrontal cortex were diminished in contrast to those that had the non-alcoholic drinks.
[2] The same thing was discovered in the caudate and ventral striatum.
[3] Increased activity in the hippocampus which points to learning and formation of new memories because this is what the hippocampus deals with.
It is nice scientists were able to figure this out because now I think there may in some way be a reduction in the harms caused by alcohol.
Alcohol is even more damaging to the brain than marijuana.
Alcohol Vs Marijuana?? Yes, I meant what I said. Most people are scared off by the name marijuana but happily embrace alcohol like a friend, lol. Let me tell you that in terms of brain health, alcohol is of more damage to the brain than marijuana itself. The marijuana has seen more legalization in different countries in recent years which is a point of concern to most people.
Even evaluating the outcome of alcohol and that of marijuana we'll know the difference between their effects on the brain. Like alcohol can lead to depression and violence while marijuana is an anti-depressant and it increases one's sex drive.
The University of Colorado conducted a test with the alcohol imaging data and found a long-term effect of alcohol on the white and gray matter of the brain while that of marijuana didn't show signs of a long-term effect on the brain.
The truth is that Marijuana is harmful but in the aspect of the brain health, it is not as bad as alcohol - that's even if it has an effect. The reason being that, a previous research done claimed marijuana had an effect on the hippocampus. Another one after a few years later said the effect was on the cerebrum. Now to change this inconsistency, they worked on the effect of marijuana on the grey and white matter of the brain and compared results to that of alcohol. It was then they noticed that marijuana had no effect on the white or the gray matter of the brain.
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Taking a little alcohol might not be fatal but when it's excessive, problems come in. Let me try to tabulate the outcome of the excessive use of alcohol and marijuana.
ALCOHOL | MARIJUANA |
| [1] Overdose of alcohol can be fatal and can lead to death | [1] There is almost a zero case of death recorded on overdose |
| [2] You're at risk of hurting yourself or other people | [2] Marijuana boosts your sex-drive |
| [3] Alcohol causes cancer | [3] Marijuana cures cancer |
| [4] Alcohol destroys brain cells | [4] Marijuana grows brain cells |
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References
[1] Alcohol more damaging than marijuana
[2] Brain activity explains drunken aggression
[3] The neural correlates of alcohol-related aggression
[4] Brain scans show why people get aggressive after a drink or two