Andrew Huberman· PhD
A consistent effect of alcohol is that, even low to modest consumption disrupts the hypothalamic-adrenal axis and predisposes to more stress (lower stress threshold).
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The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
A consistent effect of alcohol is that, even low to modest consumption disrupts the hypothalamic-adrenal axis and predisposes to more stress (lower stress threshold).
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Now, this is important to understand, and it's important to understand because I think everyone should know and recognize their own predisposition and kind of risk in terms of developing alcoholism. It's also important to understand because it relates to the phenomenon of blackout. Many people think that blacking out is passing out, but blackout drunk is when people drink and they're talking and doing things, sometimes, sadly or tragically, they'll often drive home or walk home or they'll hop on a bicycle and ride home or they'll go swimming in the ocean, all, of course, very dangerous activities to do when people are really drunk, or even a little bit drunk in some cases. So these people will do these sorts of things and they do them because they have the energy to do them and they feel good while doing them, but they are doing them while the activity of neurons in the hippocampus, which is involved in memory formation, are completely shut off. And this is why the next day, you tell them, "Hey, maybe we should talk about what happened last night." Like, "What happened last night?" You said, "Well, do you remember going to the party?" "Yeah, I know, it was great. We did this, we did this." "And then what?" And it's very clear all of a sudden that they have no recollection of all the things they were doing despite being awake. Now, I wish I could tell you that there's some sort of blood test or other biomarker or even a fingerprint test that would allow you to determine whether or not you have a propensity to be one of these drinkers that has a predisposition for alcoholism. And if you've ever been blackout drunk, and certainly if you've been blackout drunk more than a few times, you should be quite concerned. And as we talk more about the more chronic effects and long-lasting effects of alcohol consumption a little bit later in the episode, I think it'll become clear as to why you should be concerned. But in any case, there is something that can tell you whether or not you might be in that category versus likely not in that category, and I alluded to this a couple of times already, but I want to be really clear that when people drink, no matter who you are, initially, there's that shutting down of those prefrontal cortical circuits, there's a gradual shutting down of the circuits that control memory, but then people divide into these two bins. And these two bins are the people who, after more than a couple of drinks, start to feel sedated, and the people who, after more than a few drinks, do not start to feel sedated. Now, of course there's going to be differences created by how quickly people are drinking, whether or not they're combining different types of alcohol, the types of alcohol, et cetera, but in general, that can predict whether or not you're somebody who has a predisposition for alcoholism or not. One also very interesting finding is that alcohol changes the relationship between what's called the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland and the adrenals.