Hi Dr Dennis,, despite thousands of published papers mechanism of alcohol induced neuronal damage is exactly not known. Alcohol damages neuronal tissue probably by interfering with cellular signalling pathways, NMDA receptor supersensitivity and oxidative stress. Majority of studies have shown decreased hippocampal neurogenesis but few study have increased neurogenesis in chronic Alcoholic. Further research needed in this regard.. Thanks

Hi Dennis,

Although I am not familiar with the specific cellular effects, some interesting relationships with ethanol intake and impairment of blood flow control (autoregulation):

Article Cerebral blood flow and dynamic cerebral autoregulation duri...

"Dynamic cerebral autoregulation was not found to be significantly impaired by ethanol. Hypercapnia almost completely destroys the physiological autoregulatory mechanism. A mild hyper-ventilation to etCO(2)=34-36 may be a compensatory contra-measure for ethanol-induced vasodilatation in the setting of head trauma."

Best wishes

Jatinder

Hi dennis,

i think reading this article would give you a clue about the state of art in this subject

Article Alcohol, Excitotoxicity and Adult Brain Damage: An Experimen...

We may not be able to explain the 'how' but part of the 'why' may be that alcohol is by a long way the least potent of all psychoactive drugs. To get even moderately intoxicated with alcohol, most people need to drink at least 30g of alcohol within an hour; serious drinkers may need twice that. Most other drugs need only milligram or even microgram quantities to intoxicate. Since alcohol is also one of the smallest intoxicant molecules, that means many times more alcohol molecules circulating compared with cannabis, opiates or cocaine. Could that be one reason why it is so toxic to so many organs?