Hepatologist and doctor of medical sciences Aleksey Bueverov warned in an interview with media outlet aif.ru that long-term alcohol abuse leads to incurable diseases. He said alcohol exerts a toxic effect on both the liver and the nervous system.
Bueverov said this toxicity can trigger alcoholic dementia, which causes a loss of intelligence and basic household skills.
Incurable brain and nerve disorders
Bueverov also identified Korsakoff's psychosis, or Korsakoff syndrome, as an irreversible consequence of chronic drinking. He explained that patients lose the ability to store new information while retaining older memories. The condition arises from a severe vitamin B1 deficiency common in alcoholics, and prescribing the vitamin only slightly slows disease progression rather than restoring brain function.
Additionally, Bueverov said alcohol abuse can provoke alcoholic cerebellar degeneration, causing people to look drunk even when sober and gradually lose the ability to walk normally. He listed alcoholic personality degradation, alcoholic polyneuropathies, and terminal-stage Marchiafava-Bignami encephalopathy, which destroys the corpus callosum of the brain, as further incurable outcomes.
Psychiatrist-narcologist Rafael Khakimzanov previously warned that alcohol abuse can lead to alcoholic encephalopathy, calling it the most severe irreversible side effect of alcohol.
