Now a days there are many
possibilities someone can damage their brain, and not just physically, but also
by substances we consume, if they are born with a brain deformity, illness.
Korsakoff’s syndrome is a brain damage that is caused by a prolonged thiamine
deficiency. This is associated with heavy alcohol consumption over a long
period of time, which happens mostly to men between the ages of 45 and 65. This
doesn’t mean that women can’t be affected; they are also exposed to this type
of syndrome since they appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol
at a slightly younger age than men.
The Korsakoff’s syndrome is caused
by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1); this affects the brain and nervous system.
It affects mostly heavy drinkers with poor eating habits in which the diet does
not contain essential vitamins. This system is likely to develop gradually, in
which the damage might occur in important small areas deep within the brain,
such as the dorsomedial thalamus, the main source of input to the prefrontal
cortex, resulting in severe short-term memory loss. Some of the symptoms
associated that a person might experience are, difficulty in acquiring new
information or learning new skills, change in personality (person may show
apathy), lack of insight into the condition, and confabulation. Confabulation
is where a person invents events to fill the gaps in memory. Like for example,
a person who has been in hospital for several weeks may talk convincingly about
having just visited their aunt earlier that day.
Just like most diseases where a
person becomes addicted to a drug, in this case alcohol, one of the treatments
used to help them could be to adopt a healthy diet with vitamin supplements to
start producing again the thiamine, at the same time abstain from alcohol.
Recovery and improvements usually occur within a period of up to two years. The
support from family and friends is also helpful, giving them advise and
motivation to stop this addiction for their own benefit.
People might think that this just
happens to heavy drinkers that consume alcohol every day, but if you are one of
those people that consume alcohol at least once or twice a week you might want
to stop and think for a second what you are doing to your own body. Not only
you have a probability of becoming a heavy drinker in the future and possible
getting Korsakoff’s syndrome, but you might also experience less damaging to
your body such as liver problems, as well as social problems with the people
that surround you.
This video is mute, but it explains
through a series of slides how the Korsafoff’s syndrome affects the brain.
When I think about brain damage I usually associate the cause being physical damage. In the case Korsakoff's Syndrome the brain damage is actually caused by another factor, alcohol. When I first read about this syndrome I was actually surprised alcohol affected the brain to that extent. From what I know alcoholism usually leads to gastric and liver problems, but reading about how much it affects the brain was something new.
ReplyDeleteRafael, this topic was really interesting. I actually know people who consume alcohol once or twice a week, mostly because they want to relax and unwind. It doesn't worry me that they will develop this syndrome, but the effect it has on their bodies (particularly their liver) does. I will however now make them aware of this syndrome.
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