What is Wet Brain: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

what is wet brain meaning — (source: continuumrecoverycenterofcolorado)

Individuals may suffer from wet brain syndrome due to their long-term habit of alcohol consumption at an extreme level. It affects the brain tissues severely due to the lack of Thiamine or Vitamin B1.

Read further to know how this Thiamine deficiency is related to alcohol consumption and wet brain syndrome.

What Is Wet Brain?

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The wet brain disorder, also known as the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS), is a life-threatening illness. Overconsumption of alcohol is the main cause of this disease. In fact, it is named ‘wet brain syndrome’ due to its association with alcohol.

In this wet brain syndrome, the thalamus and hypothalamus of the brain get affected, thereby damaging the cells of the organ and causing memory loss.

What Are the Stages of Wet Brain?

The wet brain develops in two stages with varying severity and symptoms. These are as follows:

Wernicke's Encephalopathy: Wernicke's encephalopathy is the first stage of this neurological disorder that causes complications like confusion, double vision, difficulty in walking, etc. Managing simple daily activities like wearing clothes also becomes challenging due to the lack of coordination with the necessary muscles. Nevertheless, although the primary cause of Wernicke's encephalopathy is alcoholism, it can also result due to liver disease, severe malnutrition, anorexia, hyperthyroidism, etc.
Korsakoff's Psychosis: If a patient fails to get the treatment of Wernicke's Encephalopathy at the early stage, they may develop Korsakoff's Psychosis quickly. It is a chronic, severe and irreversible neurological disorder. It damages the brain functionalities severely, practically killing the learning abilities of patients. As a result, it becomes challenging to process knowledge and information. Furthermore, memory loss, hallucinations, dementia, retrograde amnesia, etc., are some of the complications of wet brain syndrome at this second stage. As a result of these ordeals, you can witness behavioural changes in the patients.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of a Wet Brain?

signs and symptoms wet brain — (source: bmj)

Signs of wet brain syndrome can differ according to its stages. Following are some major symptoms that you can witness in a patient with Wernicke's Encephalopathy:

Loss of mental ability
Impairment of muscle coordination
Confusion
Leg tremors
Double vision
Abnormal eye movements
Alcohol withdrawal symptoms
Eyelid drooping
Coma

Following are some major symptoms of Korsakoff's Psychosis:

Severe memory loss
Inability to develop fresh memories
Hallucinations (Visual and auditory)

What Is the Cause of Wet Brain?

The main reason that causes the wet brain is the extreme deficiency of Thiamine or Vitamin B1. This vitamin helps the human body in the production of energy. It also creates necessary signals for the brain.

If an individual drinks alcohol up to an extreme level on a regular basis, inflammation may develop in the gastrointestinal tract. As a result, the body fails to extract and absorb this Vitamin B1 from the consumed foods. If such circumstances persist over a prolonged period, an individual develops wet brain symptoms or Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.

What Are Risk Factors Involved With Wet Brain?

The following risk factors can increase the chances of getting affected with wet brain syndrome:

Poor Nutrition: Poor diet can be one of the major risk factors for this condition. The human body gets all the necessary micronutrients and vitamins, including Thiamine, from food. It cannot produce them within the body. When individuals ignore a proper diet and keep on consuming alcohol, the chances of getting affected by this disease increase significantly.
Eating Disorders: Essential nutrients of foods may get out of the body due to frequent vomiting as a result of eating disorders like anorexia. These episodes can deplete the level of Thiamine. In this respect, you also need to know that the tendency to vomit increases after consuming alcohol heavily.

Apart from these two risk factors, there are other triggers that prevent your body from getting adequate thiamine. For example:

HIV or AIDS
Thyrotoxicosis
Terminal stages of cancer
Heart failure
Gastric bypass surgery

How Is Wet Brain Diagnosed?

There is no particular test that can help doctors diagnose a wet brain in a patient. When you approach physicians, they will first consider your symptoms and check your heart rate, body temperature, eye movements, etc.

If they suspect that you may have developed this disease, they will conduct a test to check the level of Thiamine within your body. Further, they can also proceed with Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI scanning to check whether the disease has affected your brain tissues.

What Is the Treatment Method Followed for Wet Brain?

Unfortunately, there is no treatment facility that can completely cure wet brain disease. However, if the disease is in its early stages and the detection is quite early, doctors may take the necessary course of action to reduce some symptoms. For this, they especially recommend high doses of Thiamine. It can restore the functionalities of the brain to some extent.

Furthermore, doctors may also recommend the intake of several other vitamins and micronutrient supplements so that the Thiamine doses may work properly. All these treatment procedures can induce a positive result only when the symptoms are limited to Wernicke's encephalopathy. Although doctors treat patients with Korsakoff's psychosis, its effects may be almost negligible. It cannot restore memory loss.

Besides this treatment, a patient also needs to take follow-up care as mentioned below:

Maintaining a Balanced Diet: Vitamin B1 or Thiamine will function properly if the body has all other vitamins and micronutrients. Therefore, a patient should ideally maintain a balanced diet to help in the absorption of vitamins and nutrients. Furthermore, including food items like milk, oranges, spinach, soybeans, pork, etc. help reduce the dependency on medicinal doses of Thiamine.
Refraining From Alcohol Consumption: It is necessary to abstain from alcohol consumption to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment. In fact, a patient should ideally stop consumption after being diagnosed with this disease.

What Are the Preventive Measures for Wet Brain Syndrome?

Since alcoholism and the resultant Thiamine deficiency is the main cause of wet brain syndrome, you should ideally avoid binge drinking as a preventive measure. If you have become addicted to drinking, you can get yourself enrolled in an alcohol detox program. It can help you restore your health. You can also get yourself admitted into a rehab centre to eliminate the habit of drinking.

Nevertheless, during this process, you can witness alcohol withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, heavy sweating, high blood pressure, etc. All these can be severe. This is why you should ideally stay under the complete supervision of doctors.

When to See a Doctor While Dealing With Wet Brain?

Symptoms of the first-stage wet brain are reversible with high doses of Thiamine. So, you should ensure that the patients get the required medical attention as soon as possible. Although the symptoms of wet brain and early-stage alcohol withdrawal syndrome can be similar, you need to take the patient to a doctor to ascertain the cause. With early treatment, you can minimise the impact and reduce the chances of permanent damage to the patient’s brain.

Frequently Asked Questions

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How long can a person live with a Wet brain?

This condition is associated with extreme alcoholism, where brain tissues begin to deteriorate. Once diagnosed with end-stage alcoholism, the patient usually has 6 months of life expectancy.

Is wet brain actually curable?

When the condition is diagnosed at an early stage, it is possible to reverse the symptoms of a wet brain. If left untreated, the condition may cause confusion, lack of motor coordination and hallucinations in certain cases.

What is the best way to prevent a Wet brain?

A wet brain is caused by the lack of thiamine in the brain. Incorporating thiamine in your regular diet is useful for preventing wet brain. Cereal, fish, pork, lentils, beans, green peas, rice, yoghurt, sunflower seeds, etc., are some of the natural sources of Thiamine.