Alcohol Causes Brain Damage, Part 2

The widespread belief that moderate taking of alcoholic drinks is harmless and even good for the health is blasted by the results of experiments conducted by an American medical team. The top findings are as follows:

• Any kind of alcohol drink destroys irreplaceable brain cells.
• Continuous years of drinking translate into the destruction of millions of such cells.
• Brain cell damage or loss is permanent, and the symptoms include advanced aging, recurrent loss of memory, impaired judgment, slowed wits, and reduced sensory acuity.

The team was led by Dr. Melvin H. Knisely, a professor of anatomy at Medical University of South Carolina and their findings were published in the Microvascular Research, a medical periodical of international circulation.

They said their experiments showed that even the first-ever or occasional drink may result in loss of brain cells. Such a loss relentlessly accumulates, affecting millions of cells "if drinking is continued successively five years."

The doctors stressed that the human body cannot replace brain cells, meaning such injury is of the permanent type.

The Knisely group said it discovered the effects of alcohol on the brain by studying the small arteries of the white of the eye under a microscope.

Eyes of 200 healthy non-drinking persons were examined by the team. Blood cells in the eyes of the non-drinking persons were observed to be separate from each other and flow through the narrow arteries easily and rapidly.

In the case of drinkers, their blood cells were found to clump together, forming wads which become larger and pass through the arteries more slowly as the percentage of alcohol in their blood increases, the team found out.

The research also showed that aside from the brain, other organs of the body, such as the liver, heart and kidneys, also are injured by alcohol in the blood.

The medical team reported that its experiments were built upon the foundations laid by the late Dr. C. B. Courville, an authority on neuropathology, who authored a book, Effect of Alcohol on the Nervous System of Man.

With detailed pictures, Dr. Courville proved that the cerebral cortex, the thinking center of the brain, and the cerebellum, responsible for muscle coordination and balance, are badly damaged as a result of drinking enough alcohol for many years.

In his studies, Dr. Courville also suggested that the brains of alcoholics hemorrhage more easily than those of non-drinkers, their lifespans shortened by 15 years after becoming problem drinkers.

"The only way to be safe from the dangers of alcohol is to quit it cold," advised Dr. Knisely.