How alcohol affects the brain vs drugs
The brain and body are both affected similarly by drugs and alcohol there is no saying which one is more severe, but this makes you think, Why are the drugs I've listed illegal and alcohol is fully legal? However, this is a complicated question so instead, I will only be comparing the two.
The word "drugs" in this article refers to many things such as marijuana, painkillers, cocaine, heroin, benzodiazepines, stimulants, inhalants, and sleeping pills. Remember not all drugs are equal users describe them as much different.
How alcohol and drugs compare
As most of you may know, most drugs such as cocaine, heroin, MDMA (molly, ecstasy), ketamine, xanax, etc., are illegal, whereas alcohol is legal, but they don't differ too much when you look at what it does to your brain. Drugs and alcohol affect your neurons and affect the communication between the brain and Body Parts. Collectively, smoking, Alcohol, and illicit drug use kill 11.8 million people each year. This is more than the number of deaths from all cancers. An estimated 3500000 Men and 150000 Women die from a drug overdose in the world every year. Worldwide, 3 million deaths every year are from the use of alcohol, this represents 5.3 % of all deaths. Dr. Myron Smith said, “There are two types of addiction Physical and Psychological things like alcohol and Heroin are Physically addictive because if your body gets used to them it gives you a severe reaction. With heroin it usually gives you the sweats, you start shaking uncontrollably, hallucination and vomiting if you try to get off of them, alcohol makes you tremble if you don’t have it. The effect is not as drastic as heroin with alcohol.”
How alcohol affects the brain and body
Prolonged use of alcohol is toxic to the neuron and can result in neuron death. Continued use of alcohol can also cause atrophy of the cerebellum shrinkage of the brain. This results in ataxia, a degenerative disease of the nervous system, which is irreversible. Many people think that alcohol kills brain cells, but this is not true; it only affects the neurons' ends, which are called dendrites; this makes it hard for the neurons to relay messages to one another. The effects are different on teenagers, and mostly more severe Adolescents are more sensitive to alcohols memory impairing effects than adults. Drinking during this critical growth period can lead to lifelong damage in brain function, particularly as it relates to memory, motor skills, and coordination. It can affect the normal development of vital organs and parts in teenagers, including the brain, liver, bones, and hormones.
“The effects are different on teenagers, and mostly more severe Adolescents are more sensitive to alcohols memory impairing effects than adults.”
Dr. Myron Smith a now ZIS teacher who got his Chemistry doctorate at the University of London and used to work at a pharmaceutical company says, “Alcohol is physically addictive.”
Long-term use of alcohol could affect the human body terribly one example being it could cause strokes and high blood pressure. It can also affect your liver horribly it can cause Cirrhosis which is a permanent liver sickness. The pancreas can also be affected awfully because alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation, and swelling of the pancreas' blood vessels that prevent proper digestion.
How drugs affect the brain and body
Drugs are made of chemicals, many similar to the chemicals already in our system. Drugs alter the way nerve cells typically send, receive, and process information. They do this by:
Imitating the brain's natural chemical messengers
By over-stimulating the reward circuit of the brain
flooding the brain with excess chemicals
Binding to receptors in the brain
For example, some drugs, such as marijuana and heroin, have a similar structure to chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, which are naturally produced by the brain. These drugs can fool the brain's receptors and activate nerve cells to send abnormal messages because of this similarity. This results in the high you feel when you take these drugs. Other drugs, such as cocaine or methamphetamine, can cause the nerve cells to release abnormally large amounts of natural neurotransmitters or prevent the regular recycling of these brain chemicals, which is needed to shut off the signal between neurons. This disruption produces a greatly amplified message that results in a different type of high.
As a person continues to use drugs, the brain adapts to a large amount of dopamine by producing less of its own dopamine or reducing the number of dopamine receptors in the reward circuit.
Long-term use causes changes in other brain chemical systems and circuits as well. Drugs of abuse (Illegal drugs can be drugs of abuse) facilitate non-conscious learning, which leads the user to experience uncontrollable cravings when they see a place or a person they associate with the drug experience, even when the drug itself is not available. Brain imaging studies of drug-addicted individuals show changes in areas of the brain that are critical to judgment, decision making, learning and memory, and behavior control. Together this can make someone addicted to these drugs.
“Drugs like heroin are physically addictive which means the addict cannot function without it and if he tries to get off of it he starts shaking uncontrollably, hallucinating, vomiting and trembling.”, said Dr. Myron Smith when I interviewed him. Things like marijuana are psychologically addictive which means you think you can't function without it but you can, said Dr. Myron Smith.
Food vs. Cocaine amounts in Dopamine
Drugs affect the brain's neurons, they affect communication between the brain and different parts of the body, similar to alcohol. Also, similar to alcohol, it can affect mood. Drugs can overstimulate the brain, which is very unhealthy. Most illegal drugs can have awful cardiovascular effects, ranging from abnormal heart rates to heart attacks. Injecting illicit drugs also can lead to cardiovascular problems, such as collapsed veins and bacterial infections of the blood vessels and heart valves. Drugs can badly affect the liver or even damage it. Some drugs such as statins can affect the Liver Enzymes and cause Liver damage, which is usually minor. Taking drugs can affect the pancreas badly if you keep using these drugs, it can result in inflammation leading to symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and tachycardia. There may be many severe instances of inflammation before the condition progresses to chronic pancreatitis.
Teenager use alcohol and drugs
Teenagers use drugs and alcohol very often for multiple reasons including; They could be using it because of just normal teenage rebellion, Instant gratification as drugs feel good at the start according to many sources but then later can have life-changing effects, escape from the real world can be another reason as teenagers can have stressful lives which brings me to my next point stress, stress is probably the biggest reason why teenagers use drugs and alcohol they are either stressed from school things happening at home or social life this effects them in very bad ways and makes them do things that aren’t good for themselves.
Drugs and alcohol have severe effects on teenagers as their brain is still developing. Dr. Myron Smith said, “Taking these drugs any time between the age of 0-14 could do irreparable damage to your brain.” The main problem with drug-taking and alcohol use when you’re a teenager is problems with memory there are also effects on the neurons that are more severe to teenagers than to adults. It could also make your brain go into a bad circulation and get used to these things which are very bad as it may make you physically addicted which is very bad because you wouldn’t be able to function without it.
In conclusion drugs and alcohol could affect you in many different ways and are similar in certain ways some drugs can be more severe and some types of alcohol could have more severe consequences on you. Teenagers also have much more long term and worse short term effects. You can't say which is worse alcohol or drugs as there are many different types of both but you can say that both have very bad effects on you.
Sources and links for further reads:
https://www.phoenixhouse.org/faq/what-happens-to-your-brain-when-you-take-drugs/ https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/alcohol-teenagers https://www.beachsiderehab.com/blog/what-are-the-differences-between-drug-addiction-and-alcoholism/ https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohols-effects-body#:~:text=Alcohol%20interferes%20with%20the%20brain's,clearly%20and%20move%20with%20coordination. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/consumer-healthcare/what-is-cardiovascular-disease/illegal-drugs-and-heart-disease#:~:text=Most%20illegal%20drugs%20can%20have,blood%20vessels%20and%20heart%20valves. https://destinationhope.com/the-effects-of-drug-abuse-on-your-pancreas/#:~:text=Effects%20of%20drug%20abuse%20on%20the%20pancreas&text=This%20results%20in%20inflammation%20leading,condition%20progresses%20to%20chronic%20pancreatitis. https://drugfree.org/article/top-8-reasons-teens-try-alcohol-drugs/ https://www.addictioncenter.com/teenage-drug-abuse/health-effects-teen-substance-abuse/
