Ethanol's Other Side

Ethanol's Other Side 

Written by Bashaer alnujaydi

            We all know that drinking alcohol excessively is correlated with health problems, such as liver disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and it is a significant factor in accidents. It is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and excessive alcohol consumption costs the country over $200 billion a year. However, a study done by Dr.Collins et al. (2015) found, using the MEP model, which stands for “moderate ethanol precondition”, that ethanol at low to moderate concentrations has the ability to provide protection to the neuron against the protein that causes Alzheimer’s and other neuro-inflammatory proteins. Dr.Collins estimated that a moderate amount of ethanol for each gender was about a cup for women and two cups for men

 An article by the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (2014) says of the different types of alcohol that red wine, instead of whiskey or beer, actually provides the most protection against the neuron-degenerative disease. Red wine contains more "resveratrol", the ingredient that gives protection against disease. Interestingly, people show an even more significant effect if they also follow healthy life choices, along with drinking red wine.

            Another interesting article, “Can Drinking Milk Prevent Alzheimer's Disease?”, showed the effect of milk with respect to protection against Alzheimer's disease.The study, by Choi et al. (2015), found that milk makes the body produce more antioxidant against the neurodegenerative disease. Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center did the study on 60 adults. After they provided them with milk, they scanned their brains to see the result. They found that production of glutathione, which is an important substance for the health of the brain and the nervous system, increased after drinking milk. The article suggested that poor lifestyles, too much stress, and not exercising causes the level of glutathione to drop, which makes the brain more susceptible to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

References

Choi, In-Young, Phil Lee, Douglas R. Denney, Kendra Spaeth, Olivia Nast, Lauren Ptomey, Alexandra K. Roth, Jo Ann Lierman, and Debra K. Sullivan. "Dairy intake is associated with brain glutathione concentration in older adults." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 101, no. 2 (2015): 287-293. http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/101/2/287.abstract?sid=f6327f8e-bd37-4895-b676-a33f3d1f384c

Collins, Michael A., Neafsey, Edward J., Wang, Kewei, Achille, Nicholas J., Mitchell, Robert M., and Sivaswamy, Sreevidya. “Moderate Ethanol Preconditioning of Rat Brain Cultures Engenders Neuroprotection Against Dementia-Inducing Neuroinflammatory Proteins: Possible Signaling Mechanisms.” Molecular Neurobiology 41, no. 2-3 (2015): 420-425. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908405

Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. "Low-to-Moderate Alcohol Consumption." Last modified January 16, 2014. http://www.alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-vitality/report/low-to-moderate-alcohol-consumption