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This is Your Brain On Alcohol |
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Written by Superhuman
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Wednesday, 23 January 2008 |
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Moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke and prevents premature death. Excessive consumption is another story.
Heavy drinking disrupts marriages and careers, promotes domestic violence and causes deadly accidents. It also dehydrates and shrinks the brain and impairs its capacity. Alcoholics suffer cognitive decline that decreases rational thinking, learning, memory and organization. The brain has a remarkable capacity to heal. European researchers, using MRI, showed that people who stopped drinking showed improved activity of key brain chemicals and increased brain volume. Basic tests of cognitive ability, memory, problem solving and organizational skills improved rapidly in less than two months without alcohol. The authors concluded that the brain, and particularly its white matter (brain thought center), has a genuine capacity for regrowth. (Brain, 130: 36-47, 2007)
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