Moderate Drinking vs. Brain Cells

Everything one does affects their body. Different actions lead to different outcomes, some bad and some good. Drinking also affects the body, but the specific body part affected by drinking that I want to focus on is the brain. According to "The Science Daily," it has been noted that "moderate to binge drinking reduces the structural integrity of the brain" (Robin Lally). Drinking regularly decreases nerve cell development which is unhealthy for the body because it doesn't allow the brain to function at its best capacity, leaving room for health problems to arise. Drinking moderately affects the hippocampus part of the brain which is responsible for memory and learning. Damaging the hippocampus can lead to future health issues including dementia and overall cognitive decline. Moderate drinking can change into binge drinking without the person being fully aware of what is going on. A research was conducted using rats in which they increased the intoxication levels (about 3-4 drinks for women and five drinks for men) and saw that "the number of nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain were reduced by nearly 40 percent compared to those in the abstinent group of rodents" (Robin Lally). Since the hippocampus is also responsible for making new neurons, it is crucial to our overall health. 

This article relates to the presentation we had in our neuroscience seminar class about ethanol preconditioning and brain neuro protective signaling. A similar research method was used where 20 mM ethanol was given to 7-10 day old rats. The findings showed that moderate ethanol triggers neuro protected state when sensors are triggered. the brain metabolizes ethanol at a slow rate. HSP27 and HSP70 (mostly neurons) are both needed for protection in brain, if you knock one down the other is affected. The brain goes into neuro-protective state. The overall study related to real life situations in which it summarized that moderate drinking has affects such as cognitive decline and dementia. In a 1977-1988 study studies showed that ratio risk for dementia was .77 for moderate drinkers vs. 1.00 for non-drinkers. This number difference is ver significant. 



Resources:
Rutgers University. "Moderate drinking decreases number of new brain cells." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 October 2012. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121024164759.htm>.