Regardless of the degree of proven disability shown to be associated with chronic drinking many people, sometimes who are very young, who enjoy drinking a lot seem to insist they do better in life with a lot of alcohol as part of their daily life because after all alcohol makes them feel good. However, although some studies point out that light to moderate drinking may be good for your health evidence continues as usual to highlight significant health hazards associated with chronic drinking.
It has been reported in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism that there is abundant epidemiological and clinical evidence which shows that light–moderate drinking is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), total and ischaemic stroke and total mortality in middle-aged and elderly men and women. And the U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health has reported in over half of nearly 45 reports since the early 1990s, significantly lower risks of cognitive loss or dementia in moderate, nonbinge consumers of alcohol (wine, beer, liquor) have been observed, whereas increased risk has been observed only in a few studies.
A new study shows that chronic alcoholism may result in a weakened relationship between the frontal lobe and cerebellar activity of the brain in those who are recently abstinent. Kurt Ullman has reporte for MedPage Today "Chronic Drinking May Weaken Brain Connections." Researcher Baxter P. Rogers, PhD found that fronto-cerebellar functional connectivity, as measured by the results of a finger-tapping exercise while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), was lower in alcohol-dependent patients than in healthy controls. This reduction was found to be specific to the fronto-cerebellar circuits.
Although the mechanism for the neurocognitive deficits associated with alcohol dependence is not entirely understood the researchers have written "Our findings show a pattern in recently abstinent alcoholics of specific deficits in functional connectivity and recruitment of additional brain regions for performance of a simple finger-tapping task." And so this research backs up advice to simply not drink too much if you want to maintain good brain health.
Photographer: Nicholas Tarling
