Skip to content

Does Alcohol kill brain cells?

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

This myth is HUGE! Urban legend says that drinking kills cells, some even say: ‘three beers kill 10,000 brain cells.’ Thankfully, they are wrong.

In microbiology labs, a 70% alcohol 30% water mix is used to clean surfaces pretty efficiently. It seems our neurons are made of sturdier stuff.

Alcohol does affect brain cells. Everyone knows that and it isn’t pretty. Alcohol can damage dendrites, which are delicate neural extensions that usually convey signals to other neurons. Damaging them prevents information travelling from one neuron to another — a problem. Luckily, the damage isn’t permanent.

Author

More to Explore

Dignity in Defiance: A Conversation with Dr Andrè Callus

27/03/2026 No Comments

HUMS marked the conferment of an honorary doctorate on Dr Andrè Callus by inviting him to discuss his activism in detail, shedding light not only on his background but also on the meaning behind the activism. The unique and personal insights offered by Callus illuminate the context within which one of Malta’s leading NGOs operates, and what has made it a success.

A Bird’s-Eye Warning

25/03/2026 No Comments

At the entrance to For Want of (not) Measuring, a contemporary art exhibition, visitors gape at a skull. It is of a bird, but its scale suggests something other. The sculpture rises 2.8 metres above the floor of Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta and balances improbably on its beak atop a column. From some angles, it resembles a fossil; from others, a warning. The work is by Maltese artist Prof. Trevor Borg, titled In the Balance.

Comments are closed for this article!