Alcohol And Shrinkage Of The Brain
Posted on 16. Oct, 2008 by dimaks in Life, News
Drinking Alcohol Even In Small Amounts Shrinks The Brain? — While most drinking people have been arguing and defending that alcohol is beneficial to the heart, another side of the coin was flipped by Carol Ann Paul through a study when she was at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Paul said that an estimated 2% decline in brain volume per decade is a natural process of aging, and thereby hoped that her group could find some supporting facts that would say that alcohol might prevent such brain shrinkage.
“However, we did not find the protective effect,” says Paul, who is now an instructor in the neuroscience program at Wellesley College. “In fact, any level of alcohol consumption resulted in a decline in brain volume.”
Paul’s study involved 1,839 healthy people with an average age of about 61. The subject participants went through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and logged how much they tippled.
The study result was:
Overall, the more alcohol consumed, the smaller the brain volume, with abstainers having a higher brain volume than former drinkers, light drinkers (one to seven drinks per week), moderate drinkers (eight to 14 drinks per week), and heavy drinkers (14 or more drinks per week).
Men were more likely to be heavy drinkers than women. But the link between brain volume and alcohol wasn’t as strong in men. For men, only those who were heavy drinkers had a smaller brain volume than those who consumed little or no alcohol.
In women, even moderate drinkers had a smaller brain volume than abstainers or former drinkers.
Now you must be torn between your heart and brain. Which one would you prefer, healthy heart or good brain?
Source: CNN News
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Part-time blogger dimaks is involved in transport planning and research and is into Internet technology, PC games, digital photography, motorcycling and martial arts.. 
thecookie
Oct 17th, 2008
That explains it!
Shiraz Syndrome!
http://lifeisacookie.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/shiraz-syndrome/
Jaypee
Oct 22nd, 2008
I’m glad I never started the habit of drinking alcoholic beverages.
dimaks
Oct 23rd, 2008
Jaypee
same here.. now that we know some facts, why risk it, right? anyway, in the end, it boils down to personal choice and preference
John
Oct 26th, 2008
Us men are safe then as long as we don’t become heavy drinkers!
John