Health | October 14, 2008 | 55 comments

Excess drinking shrinks the brain

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/13/AR2008101301740.html

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jmromana
The more alcohol you drink, the more your brain shrinks, a new study has found.

"The take-home message is that, if you drink a lot, you're going to hurt your brain," said Rajesh Miranda, an associate professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "This is something we knew, but this is a huge study that quantifies that."

"It's not surprising that alcohol would cause shrinkage of the brain. That kind of thing has been observed in animal models and smaller studies," Miranda added. "The surprising thing is that they [the study authors] showed that even low levels of drinking are not protective, as people had seen in other cases."


The findings are published in the October issue of theArchives of Neurology.

Brain volume decreases naturally as people age, at a rate of about 1.9 percent per decade. At the same time, the brain acquires white matter lesions as it gets older. Both of these changes also accompany dementia and cognitive decline, according to background information in the study.

Moderate levels of alcohol consumption have been linked with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, leading researchers to hypothesize that restrained tippling might also slow declines in brain volume. Previous studies have also found that drinking alcohol in moderation is associated with improved cognitive function and a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

For the new study, led by Carol Ann Paul, of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, researchers conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and health exams on 1,839 adults (average age 60) participating in the Framingham Offspring Study between 1999 and 2001. None of the participants had evidence of clinical dementia or had suffered a stroke.

The men and women were asked how much alcohol they drank each week, then were classified as abstainers, former drinkers, or low (one to seven drinks per week), moderate (eight to 14 drinks per week) or high consumers of alcohol (more than 14 drinks a week).

Most participants (almost 38 percent of men and more than 44 percent of women) fell into the "low-consumption" category. Men were more likely than women to report being moderate or heavy drinkers.

Alcohol had no protective affect on the normal, age-related shrinkage in brain volume, the researchers found.

To the contrary, the more a person drank, the more their brain volume diminished. This relationship was somewhat more pronounced in women, although women tended to be lighter drinkers.

The gender difference could be explained by biological factors, namely that alcohol is absorbed faster in women and they tend to feel the effects of alcohol more than men, the researchers said.
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55 comments // Excess drinking shrinks the brain

  • arcticspirit
    • 0
      arcticspirit  

    • But.. If you drink alot, and often, and your brain shrinks, and shrinks and shrinks... chances are you won't notice. Thus it will be easier to get and stay drunk.
      Or possibly feel drunk when you aren't.

      Sounds great doesn't it? Well until your friends and family get sick of it... and put you in a "home". By then hopefully your brain is small enough that you still feel drunk enough not to realize what happened. And you think you went to FLA or something, with lots of hot chicks.

      (cringes)
      btw, homer pct rules

    • 3 years ago
  • robp24
    • 0
      robp24  

    • As a self described Narccisist my head is too big anyway, a few pounds won't hurt. Anyway, these studies are typically self interest set ups. How many times have we heard that eggs are bad, then good, then bad and so on?

    • 3 years ago
  • satanskidney
  • jcrary
    • 0
      jcrary  

    • Cliff Clavin's Theory of Beer

      "A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. When the herd is hunted, the slow and weak at the back are killed first. The speed and health of the herd keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

      "In the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as its slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. Naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first.

      "In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

    • 3 years ago
  • Johnny_Danger
  • 1986
    • 0
      1986  

    • WELL EVERY ONE THINKS DIFFERENT BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE DRINK JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT BUT OTHER PEOPLE ARE SICK THEY JUST CANT STOP DRINKING.

    • 3 years ago
  • BrianaYo
  • KatieYo
  • james115
    • 0
      james115  

    • this new study should be able to prevent those that care about their health from drinking. The information should make those that drink stop,because of the situation of the side effects.

    • 3 years ago
  • schimmerman
  • oscar_cuevas
    • 0
      oscar_cuevas  

    • I think this article should go out to the whole world so people can see the effect of this product then maybe people can make more better decisions.

    • 3 years ago
  • dictionhound
    • 0
      dictionhound  

    • you don't actually throw it up, ethanol is hydrophobic so your body readily absorbs and this is part of the reason you begin feeling intoxicated so quickly

    • 3 years ago
  • amaness
  • cantucwearebrothers
  • Byrontosaurus
  • JohnA
  • ResistRebelRevolt
  • BLAMM_O
    • 0
      BLAMM_O  

    • This is way I stick to huffing gas and smalling fistfulls of permanent markers. Drinking is stoopid stoppid stoooopid

    • 3 years ago
  • Big_Black
    • 0
      Big_Black  

    • it makes sence. heavy drinkers can just not comprehend that smoking pot is a lot healthier and safer then drinking.
      even with all the studys that prove this it still does nothing to sway their feelings about pot.
      smoke some pot it will be better for your mind, brain, and body.

    • 3 years ago
  • flyingkick
  • simplecj
    • 0
      simplecj  
    • Big_Black:

      @ flyingkick...

      That was a pretty bogus study you are referring to. It does not prove cause and effect and they had a very small sample group of 15 stoners and 30 some non-tokers.

      They said "Researchers found that the hippocampus, which is thought to regulate memory, was an average of 12% smaller among marijuana users, compared with people who didn't smoke pot. The amygdala, involved in emotion and memory, was an average of 7% smaller."

      But that doesn't mean that the marijuana use caused this. Perhaps people with reduced sizes in these areas are simply less aggressive, more peaceful people who are simply more likely to be regular users. And as far as the stoners testing below the other group in cognitive and verbal skills, still does not prove anything besides trends in who smokes regularly and who doesn't... I for one am an A-B college student in engineering AND a regular user, so I doubt that they were sampling the most intelligent cannabis users because I know there are plenty of them out there. Many very intelligent and famous people smoke pot, but they would probably be much less likely to participate in such a biased study...

      The only way to directly link the shrinking brain parts to cannabis use is to have several larger groups who are monitored over time, like several years, to show an actually link to cannabis use.

    • 3 years ago
  • flyingkick
    • 0
      flyingkick  
    • Big_Black:

      simple,

      The simplest explanation is probably the right one, that's why Yücel came to those conclusions. Your idea is possible, but it's nowhere near as likely as Yücel's.

      Maybe if you didn't smoke so much pot, you'd be an
      A+ college student...

    • 3 years ago
  • simplecj
    • 0
      simplecj  
    • Big_Black:

      I still stand on the fact that it is just another biased study that is scientifically flawed... First of all you'd have to establish that everyone's brains were exactly the same to begin with. Only other way is to actually study the effects over time, like years or even decades. Without satisfying those criteria, you'll never have solid findings.

      Bogus studies mislead way too many people... who the hell is this Yucel anyways? I reject your claim that the simplest explaination is correct, because you accept it in the face of so many unaccounted variables and so much uncertainty.

      Either do the study right, or repeat it multiple times with new and larger sample groups to prove your point. I'm not going to believe a study that's based on only 15 out of the millions and millions of cannabis users in the world. Maybe they just picked 15 stupid stoners? AND what other effects are being ignored? Did they drink? What were their brains like before they started using??

      BTW, I enjoy cannabis, more so than alcohol. I don't abuse it and actually believe that I am using it in a somewhat medicinal manner for several reasons. Of course I'm not one of those fools who smoke bong load after bong load... one hitters are plenty for me!

    • 3 years ago
  • flyingkick
    • 0
      flyingkick  
    • Big_Black:

      Yes, it's true: the simplest explanation is PROBABLY the right one.

      You have a group of people with smaller brains than another group of people.
      The one thing all the smaller brains have in common is heavy pot usage.
      Therefore... the simplest explanation.

      No study is perfect, there are too many variables to account for, but to say it's a coincidence or some other factor is stretching it.

      Anyway, the study was about people who smoked 5 joints a day for 10 years. Sounds like you're in the clear.

    • 3 years ago
  • PajamaDan
    • 0
      PajamaDan  

    • That's odd,... excessive drinkers are usually the smartest, most focused people,... driving drunk at 4pm.
      Let's not discount the problems "light" or "social" drinking brings, also. Just because there's no obvious brain-trauma with social drinking,... it has still got to be causing irreversible damage. Memory, sensory problems, et cetera.
      DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE!

    • 3 years ago
  • krush_productions
  • activist_INC
  • simplecj
  • regularrf
  • Meaghan1126
    • 0
      Meaghan1126  

    • what is "excessive drinking????"
      because im pretty sure my college career qualifies me as an excessive drinker....oh well i'll just go back to smoking reefer.

      no point in being sober....the economy is bad =)

    • 3 years ago
  • Neghie
  • bigloutech
  • jonny2times
    • 0
      jonny2times  

    • you can feel it happening, its commonly referred to as a hangover, even though alcohol in in a liquid form, it actually dehydrates you in many ways, the one in question, the gray matter of the brain, soaks up alcohol like a sponge, then the alcohol metabolizes and causes all the symtoms mentioned above.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  

    • And shrinkage of the brain is bad because......

      It leads one to believe it's bad, but it doesn't state why.

      Unless it's linking dementia to drinking excessively or you could get it should you drink a lot....because it didn't state that either.

    • 3 years ago
  • oblivious
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • J_Jammer:

      But that's not what it says.

      It says that it goes hand in hand with age as you get older and the shrinkage happens....not that alcohol makes it more so.

      As in the brain may shrink with alcohol but doesn't increase the chances...

      It's only stated as what happens during normal circumstances not what happens with the drinking or that the drinking escalates it.

    • 3 years ago
  • oblivious
  • J_Jammer
  • jjmaster
    • 0
      jjmaster  
    • J_Jammer:

      I had always heard that alcohol killed brain cells?Is that the cause of the shrinkage? J_Jammer, you are sounding more like Plusaf everyday -- Very analytically logical!

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • sergefreeman
  • WorldPeaceTV
    • 0
      WorldPeaceTV  

    • So, let me get this straight. If man continues to drink excessively, 200 years from now mans brain will be smaller than his eyeball. Right?

    • 3 years ago
  • localsly
  • flyingkick
  • dirtyemowords
  • isnamthere
  • rainbowryan420
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • I have a 20 year-old medical dictionary that says that alcohol shrinks the brain. It even has a photo of two human brains - one from a non-drinker and one from an alcoholic. The alcoholic's brain is half the size of the non-drinker's brain and is rather black in color because of the necrotic cells.

      As for women feeling alcohol faster than men, it all depends on their body-build and on their genetic makeup. I can drink any man under the table, and there was a period of my youth during which I downed a liter of vodka every night (slowly, with orange juice, over a period of some six or seven hours), and was never drunk. But then, I do have Russian genes! :)

    • 3 years ago
  • oblivious
  • jjmaster
  • localsly
  • arcticspirit
  • barbara3d
    • 0
      barbara3d  
    • Vierotchka:

      my mother was a "working alcoholic" for 15 years. It ruined my young life but I chose NOT to go her route and raised 3 wonderful sons. She is now almost 80 and for the last 20 years...her diagnosis: Brain Atrophy/aka white matter disease.

      I think occasional drinks are ok...it is the HARD stuff like she drank. A fifth a day for 15 years and went to work every day.....

    • 3 years ago
  • abbym0308
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