Prior to the
late 1930’s – before the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous by Bill Wilson and
Dr. Bob Smith – alcoholics were viewed as sinners with failed moral codes, and weak
personalities. As time progressed, and America rebelled Prohibition, alcohol consumption
became more and more popular, with increasing rates of alcohol withdrawal, liver
disease, and delirium tremens. With unrestricted use of alcohol, heavy drinking
was viewed as less of a personality failure, and more of a disease – alcoholism.
Even now, in
social and medical settings, we fail to acknowledge that alcoholism is a psychological
disease that entails heavy drinking, and mental fixation on the substance. It
is known that heavy, chronic alcohol use and abuse causes neuronal defects, but
what about moderate alcohol consumption? According to the talk delivered by Dr.
Michael Collins, and the reading, Moderate
Ethanol Preconditioning of Rat Brain Cultures Engenders Neuroprotection Against
Dementia-Inducing Neuroinflammatory Proteins: Possible Signaling Mechanism
(Collins et al.), low-moderate alcohol (ethanol) consumption can reduce dementia
illnesses like Alzheimer’s, and can decrease the neuroinflammatory processes that
are linked to brain aging.
As the title of
the reading states, Dr. Collins and colleagues worked on rats. There are many
differences in rats and humans, but studies like this are very insightful in terms
of biological processes of the brain. We are able to better understand how our
brains may work through the studying of rat brains. Conversely, since these
rats are not entirely like us, they lack the sense of self.
The extreme
pressures of society, along with the intense, sometimes conflicting, emotions
humans endure is fascinating. From the article, Drinking, Depression and Their Dysfunctional Relationship by
Hannah Sentenac of the Huffington Post, depression and heavy ethanol use go
hand in hand. Sentenac addresses the genetic components along with comorbidity
of other mental issues. From this, it is safe to say that moderate alcohol use
does not always stay moderate. With the increasing stressors of life, many
people are unable to sustain a physically and mentally healthy lifestyle. In
turn, this can cause the dependence of alcohol, or any drug for that matter. It
is accepted that everyone has their vice, but that vice can become an
uncontrollable and unwanted addiction.
Strictly
biologically, studies like Dr. Collins’ experiment on rats, along with others
of the kind on different model organisms are great. However, when it comes to
drawing real life parallels and mapping these results onto humans, it is
difficult to gauge and predict the outcomes. Although these experiments may not
tell us the exact consequences of human behavior, they are vital to our
learning process. Studies like this are still in the early stages replication
and application, therefore, improving and enhancing them to incorporate
human-like factors is key.
References:
Image:
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1915580/images/n-ALCOHOLISM-large570.jpg
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