Q. Can alcohol have a long-term effect on the brain? Especially for people who are in Las Vegas?

A. I have no idea about people in Las Vegas. I do know that alcohol and gambling is a bad combination. Estimates are that alcohol reaches your brain within 5 minutes of taking a first drink and within 10 minutes already is interfering with neuron pathways that the brain uses to communicate and process information. The brain considers alcohol a toxin and releases dopamine, the feel better chemical, to compensate. The relaxed, confident feeling dopamine provides does not last long, however, and reasoning and memory may already be impaired. By 20 minutes into drinking, the liver begins to metabolize alcohol at the rate of 1 ounce per hour. The CDC reported that due to gender biological differences, after drinking the same amount of alcohol, women tend to have higher blood alcohol levels and the effects last longer than in men. When you take in alcohol faster than the body can metabolize or dispose of it, you become intoxicated: in California that is a Blood Alcohol Level of 0.08 percent. The third-leading preventable cause of death in the US, 261 individuals die each day from alcohol-related causes including alcohol dementia and cancers. 30 deaths a day occur just from vehicle crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers. Alcohol does have long-term effects on the brain.