Binge drinking suppresses activities in the brain that control the level of consciousness. This could have implications for the legions of growing young people in the UK who indulge in excessive drinking.
What is worrisome is that the so-called ‘binge drinking’ can lead to immense problems. The study showed that 23 percent men and 15 percent women drink twice the amount recommended by the government.
Professor Fulton Crews, director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina and Dr Kim Nixon of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Kentucky, analyzed previous studies that had used rats to examine the effects of binge drinking.
Binge drinking is commonly defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in a row on one occasion. The rodents were put on four day binge ethanol protocol, roughly amounting to 15 units of alcohol. The results showed induced brain damage, demonstrating that heavy consumption was destructive leading to loss of mental abilities weeks after.
Relating the findings to humans, Dr Jonathan Chick, chief editor of Alcohol and Alcoholism stated: “From this research we can infer that humans who have a few heavy drinking sessions in a row may sometimes undergo subtle brain changes which make it harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems because their brain function has been subtly impaired.”
The study showed that binge drinking in 18-24 year olds may lead to a steady progression from experimentation with alcohol to an addiction. Professor Ian Gilmore, president of Royal College of Physicians in London, said, “This should be a wake up call to the millions of people whose life style means that they get drunk regularly.”
The most serious consequences of binge drinking is that it deprives the brain of oxygen. The struggle to deal with an overdose of alcohol and lack of oxygen causes the brain to shut down voluntary functions, leading to increased risk of dementia.
Other repercussions, besides fatalities, include long-term expensive treatments, amounting to 1,000 pound a week, for the life ahead. The study is an eye opener for the need to identify heavy drinkers at the earliest to nip the problem in the bud. The silver lining in the dismal scenario is that binge drinkers who abstain from alcohol do not suffer long term brain damage.
The research was published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism.
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