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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 12 of 12. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by stjames on December 6, 2003, at 17:07:35
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/12/05/shrinking.brain.ap/index.html
Research also discounts alcohol's stroke prevention benefits
Friday, December 5, 2003 Posted: 9:28 AM EST (1428 GMT)
DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- Low to moderate drinking may cause a loss of brain tissue in middle-age people, a study found.
The researchers also found that such alcohol consumption does not lower the risk of a stroke -- contradicting findings from previous studies.
"I think this is an interesting study because people talk about the beneficial effects of alcohol intake on cardiovascular disease and they try to extend that to stroke," said the study's lead researcher, Dr. Jingzhong Ding, a research associate at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "Some studies find beneficial effects, but ours didn't."
Heavy drinking is known to raise the risk of both brain atrophy and stroke, but findings on the effects of low to moderate drinking have varied.
The new study appears in Friday's issue of the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
It moves doctors a step closer to understanding what amounts of alcohol are harmful, said Dr. Edgar J. Kenton III, a professor of clinical neurology at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Ding and his colleagues evaluated 1,909 patients, ages 55 and older, from North Carolina and Mississippi who were participants in a study on the buildup of plaque in the arteries. Researchers used information collected between 1987 and 1989 and followed up every three years until 1995.
Using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRIs, researchers measured the patients' ventricular and sulcal areas -- voids of the brain containing only cerebrospinal fluid. Increased ventricular and sulcal size indicates a reduction in brain tissue, or atrophy.
The findings showed that both voids grew larger the more people drank.
Ding said researchers cannot make a definitive cause-and-effect link between drinking and brain atrophy because the MRIs were done only once during the study and because they found only a small reduction in tissue.
Posted by krazybirdlady on December 6, 2003, at 17:26:47
In reply to Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by stjames on December 6, 2003, at 17:07:35
veeery interesting...i myself have curbed my drinking not because of any study, but because i didn't like myself while drinking. however, through personal experience i have found that moderate drinking has had no ill effects on anyone i know. both my grandfathers lived well into their 90's. heavy drinking, however, is a totally different thing. Does genetics play an effect..you bet. do peoples intellects play an effect...you bet. it is such a difficult equation to decipher as their are too many variables. much like mental illness, it is still a mystery as to why?, even after decades of study.
Posted by bsj on December 6, 2003, at 20:31:32
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by krazybirdlady on December 6, 2003, at 17:26:47
I've been drunk about three times in my life. I never liked it; it confuses me, and amplifies whatever I happen to be feeling at the moment, which, in the past, has been usually bad.
If I could change my consciousness permanently in any way, I'd jump by endorphins by about tenfold.
Posted by stjames on December 8, 2003, at 17:39:52
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by krazybirdlady on December 6, 2003, at 17:26:47
> veeery interesting...i myself have curbed my drinking not because of any study, but because i didn't like myself while drinking. however, through personal experience i have found that moderate drinking has had no ill effects on anyone i know. both my grandfathers lived well into their 90's.
Unless you did an MRI basekine and after, I would suspect the deficits for not be clear unless you knew what to look for.
I'll put it another way. It is common sense that
a fuel (any thing that burns) is bad to ingest.
I mean, come on !
Posted by krazybirdlady on December 8, 2003, at 19:02:02
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by stjames on December 8, 2003, at 17:39:52
kind of oversimplifying the matter aren't you. i merely stated that in my family history both my grandfathers drank "in moderation", and suffered no mental degeneration at all. both were sharp as a tack in their 90's. this is only MY history. and i don't need an MRI to tell you that. i don't really hold much stock in studies. you can find one to either support or disclaim anything you want. as far as layman's terms, i think i'll go set fire to some heparin...too bad it saves so many lives...
Posted by krazybirdlady on December 8, 2003, at 19:54:55
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by krazybirdlady on December 8, 2003, at 19:02:02
sorry for the anger in my last post, was really not directed at you. i simply tire of so much inconsistency in these "studies". i have no doubt that alchohol is detrimental to overall health. but so is anything in excess. and why is it that some can abuse their bodies for years and still not succumb to it, while others can follow everything to the letter and die in their 40's of some terrible illness? trying to justify it to myself, i guess....
Posted by bsj on December 8, 2003, at 21:45:19
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by krazybirdlady on December 8, 2003, at 19:02:02
"you can find one to either support or disclaim anything you want. as far as layman's terms"
And, unfortunately, in clinical terms, too. There's a study out there championing the efficacy of every antidepressant on the market; but not long ago the BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY showed that around 80% of the response to antidepressants is due to the placebo effect.
Posted by Eddie Sylvano on December 9, 2003, at 8:13:53
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by stjames on December 8, 2003, at 17:39:52
> I'll put it another way. It is common sense that
> a fuel (any thing that burns) is bad to ingest.
> I mean, come on !We derive energy from all of our food by burning it. It's the derviation of the caloric unit.
Posted by krazybirdlady on December 9, 2003, at 9:32:24
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by bsj on December 8, 2003, at 21:45:19
> "you can find one to either support or disclaim anything you want. as far as layman's terms"
>
> And, unfortunately, in clinical terms, too. There's a study out there championing the efficacy of every antidepressant on the market; but not long ago the BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY showed that around 80% of the response to antidepressants is due to the placebo effect.and yet, they must do something (be that good or bad), considering the withdrawl effects that many people suffer from upon ceasing the drug. once again i can't help but wonder if we are all guinea pigs for the drug companies....
Posted by bsj on December 9, 2003, at 14:15:08
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking, posted by krazybirdlady on December 9, 2003, at 9:32:24
"and yet, they must do something (be that good or bad), considering the withdrawl effects that many people suffer from upon ceasing the drug."
The drugs definitely have effects on brain chemistry; that much is certain. But the issue is whether or not these effects are sufficient to eliminate depressive symptoms. There seems to be a class of people for which the drugs work wonders on their own; a larger number who exhibit positive response due to the placebo effect; and yet others for whom they do nothing at all. Of course, this varies from person to person and symptom to symptom. E.g., I've found Wellbutrin to be great for fighting weakness and fatigue; but it does nothing at all for my motivation (or any other symptom, for that matter). It's the only AD that's ever had a positive effect on me.
Posted by stjames on December 12, 2003, at 13:57:28
In reply to Re: Study links light drinking, brain shrinking » stjames, posted by Eddie Sylvano on December 9, 2003, at 8:13:53
> We derive energy from all of our food by burning it. It's the derviation of the caloric unit.
>
>Oxidation and a fuel are not the same thing in this context.
Posted by stjames on December 13, 2003, at 21:27:20
In reply to St. James..., posted by krazybirdlady on December 8, 2003, at 19:54:55
If you read the studies about booze and pro heart effects, it was never the booze that was pro heart
it was the plant products. I am taken back that we have some hard facts here, the brain srinks, and yet
many want to still deny the facts.
This is the end of the thread.
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