- A well-known side effect of alcohol is the loosening it has on inhibitions. Alcohol makes neurons (brain nerve cells) much more permeable. This enables sodium ions, present in axons sprouting from nerve cells, to pass more easily out of cell membranes, negatively affecting the function of these cells.
Textbook I got the principle of this from didn't explain exactly *how* this affected the function of nerve cells. Do lots of sodium ions stay out of the cell, stopping nerve impulses? -- sodium
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