Alcohol is Good for Your Brain

An anonymous reader writes "A new study reported on by Nature is saying that moderate consumption of alchohol wards off dementia. Better drink up!"

Comments

agreed

[cipher uk]

yeahr i drank all la time n look at me! alchol nver di d me any harm

And

[obeythefist]

It damages your stomach lining, damages your liver and can cause diabetes, increases your weight, and increases your risk of bowel cancer.

Moderation is a very good idea.

Re:And

[Transcendent]

...water dillutes the acids in your stomach, causing lining buildup and limiting your ability to break down foods, which can cause malnutrition.

Seriously, name ONE thing that doesn't have an adverse side effect in any way, especially if you exagerate your claims (alcohol is good for your liver... in moderation).

Re:And

[Seumas]

Now, you're just being silly.

I'm not a drinker. I don't even like alchohol as I can't stand the taste. They say it's an "acquired taste" that you have to learn to like. Well, I'm sure feces is the same way, but I don't want to acquire a taste for that, either.

However, it's ridiculous for you to bring up all of these things as if everyone who has a drink now and then is going to drink so much that they're going to damage their kidneys, liver and stomach - not to mention drive drunk and kill people.

Soda damages your organs, as do a wide variety of other daily consumables. The point is moderation. And as for addiction - well, if you have a history of it in your family, you probalby shouldn't drink. But to suggest that most people can't keep their hands off the bottle is just stupid. And suggesting that most people drive drunk is just stupid.

Really, your argument has nothing to do with this topic. The report didn't say "drink as much as you can, as often as you can - and drive around while you're doing it, too". It said an occasional drink. Maybe you're one of those recovering looney's that thinks just because they can't control themselves around a glass means that the rest of the world has the same problem and needs to give it up.

this was explained on cheers long ago...

[ohchaos]

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

remember the

[bikerguy99]

90's? How many times we've heard about good then bad effects of coffee? It's same thing now with alcohol - it's a fad no more than that... I say - we live only once so party hard while you have a chance and especially if you are a nerd - there will be only fewer of them chances in the future... just make sure that your fun does not cause other people's suffering - driving while drunk isn't cool - you wouldn't be writing code while drunk, would you?

Disturbingly easy to code while drunk...

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

you wouldn't be writing code while drunk, would you?

Actually, I've found it more than a little disturbing to learn just how easy it is to write code after a couple of glasses of wine. Or even a bottle.

Makes you realize that a monkey really could do this shit...

Re:But the study is about women...

[benjamindees]

How does having more drunk women not help /. users?

Yes, yes I would

[sideshow]

you wouldn't be writing code while drunk, would you?

I guess I have a habit of doing this. I can't remember doing it, but I find a comment in my code that says: "//Fix Later, too drunk." every couple of months.

It's true!

[jd]

If all your braincells are dead from alcohol poisoning, I guarantee you won't get dementia.

The effects of alcohol on heart disease is also a myth. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the effect is from flavenoids, which are found in grapes and therefore found in wines.

It is certainly possible that there are chemicals which will block dementia. It depends on exactly what the underlying mechanisms are. For example, if an accumulation of some molecule XYZ is shown to be a cause, then all you need to do is find something that'll help eliminate it from the body.

For toxic levels of iron, for example, you'd probably use something like deferoxamine (DFO) which makes it possible to filter the excess iron out of the system.

Selenium, in high enough doses, is known to cause all sorts of neurological problems. Aluminium is suspected of doing the same. Mercury doesn't even need high doses. And these are just your basic elements. We're not even into the compounds.

One form of senile dementia - Alzheimer's Disease - is associated with the crushing of brain cells by the formation of a form of tau protein. Since proteins can't pass through the blood-brain barrier, it seems reasonable to suppose that the tau protein is manufactured by the brain itself.

This would seem to require two components - an instruction to produce this protein and something to cause that instruction to be carried out endlessly. Not a million miles from how cancers are a result of a cell replicating itself endlessly. Same infinite loop, different function call in the DNA.

There is considerable evidence that many cancers have an external component to trigger the infinite loop. It seems reasonable to deduce from this that other infinite loops are triggered the same way. A loop is a loop is a loop. It doesn't matter what's in it.

From this, we can also reasonably deduce that avoiding trigger chemicals and/or taking in something that'll prevent the body retaining or picking up those trigger chemicals would likely reduce your chances of getting dementias caused by this kind of process.

So far, so good. The first problem is that dementia covers a VERY wide range of conditions, few of which have been studied and even fewer understood. The second problem is that there isn't much good data on the environmental factors in dementia and the data that does exist (say for Aluminium) is so controversial that it is next to useless as a practical guide. Finally, the third problem is that even if you produce a list of suspects, there simply aren't any known ways of getting rid of many of them and more than a few of those are extremely toxic themselves, making them useless for a DIY remedy.