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That Which Does Not Kill Brain Cells Only Makes Them Stronger?
Great news from the world of science and just in time for a three-day weekend holiday, too! According to Scientific American, researchers in New Zealand and Ohio report that drinking beer can enhance memory and cognition. To wit:
You may be hard-pressed to recall events after a night of binge drinking, but a new report suggests that low to moderate alcohol consumption may actually enhance memory.
"There are human epidemiological data of others indicating that mild [to] moderate drinking may paradoxically improve cognition in people compared to abstention," says Maggie Kalev, a research fellow in molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a co-author of an article in The Journal of Neuroscience describing results of a study she and other researchers performed on rats. "This is similar to a glass of wine protecting against heart disease, however the mechanism is different."
Okay, so the study was done with rats. But rats are mammals. People are mammals. Suggestive? Why not try experimenting for yourselves?
Whole SciAm article here.
Guy Montag|10.5.07 @ 2:58PM|#
Ron,
I love this new information, but my only problem is that
they usually define 'binge drinking' as the same, or less,
volume that I associate with "low to moderate alcohol
consumption."
It is rougher when I don't start counting until after the bill
arrives . . .
|10.5.07 @ 3:04PM|#
Damn, I was going to detox myself a little for a vacation next
week.
So much for that!
|10.5.07 @ 3:12PM|#
I actually had a friend who obtained two BA's (education and CompSci) and one MA (CompSec) while drunk. I don't mean just on the weekends, I mean that he was in a mild state of inebriation roughly 80% of the time during college. I have always suspected this was the cause of his fantastic memory recall.
|10.5.07 @ 3:14PM|#
Ah. So this is what is meant when people say that they
"experimented with alcohol."
The More You Know
JBinMO|10.5.07 @ 3:23PM|#
Totally off subjust but there is an english guy in my office on the phone with someone and I just heard him say "well according to the mean aggrigate your supposed to live for another 28 years so I wouldn't roll the dice too much".
|10.5.07 @ 3:26PM|#
Kwix,
I had a cop tell me once about how it is not uncommon to pull over
what he referred to as "professional alcoholics". These people
would be driving perfectly well, pass every sobriety test and then
proceed to blow some obscene blood alcohol content on a
breathalyzer. They basically drank so much that it didn't affect
their ability to function anymore. I asked him "then why the hell
arrest them if they still can function at that high of a level?" He
didn't really have an answer to that beyond indignant platitudes
about the dangers of drinking and driving. But, I suspect your
friend is not alone. I think most of the myth about not being able
to be productive while drunk is put out by teetotalers who get
drunk once a year and are not surprisingly completely debilitated
by the experience.
I sometimes frankly don't see how I get through life sober. If
alsohol didn't have so many caleries, I suspect I would be more
like your friend and probably better off for it.
|10.5.07 @ 3:26PM|#
I always knew this to be the case, especially after drinking
cases.
On a sad note, I doubt this research will receive even 1/2 the
attention in the MSM that a study showing that infusing rats with
the equivalent of 15,000 joints per day increases their risk of
lung cancer [by .5 %] would get.
And finally, it seems to me that this could help explain why GWB
forgot the whole lesson of Vietnam after becoming a teetotaler.
|10.5.07 @ 3:29PM|#
"If alcohol didn't have so many calories..."
WAIT!! There's calories in alcohol? DAMMIT!! That explains a
shitload...
The Wine Commonsewer|10.5.07 @ 3:34PM|#
You may be hard-pressed to recall events after a night of
binge drinking....
In an ideal world maybe, but unfortunately, that wouldn't be the
case in TWC's world.
The Wine Commonsewer|10.5.07 @ 3:38PM|#
I mean that he was in a mild state of inebriation roughly
80% of the time during college
My grandfather was like that his entire life. Carried a flask.
Course he didn't get any degrees, pay any taxes, or support his
family. But he was a talented furniture refinisher, a great dancer,
funnier than heck, a smoking hot poker player, and everybody loved
him except the fish, who trembled at the mention of his name or the
sound of his tackle box opening.
|10.5.07 @ 3:43PM|#
All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine.
|10.5.07 @ 3:44PM|#
Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's get through this thing and then I can continue killing you with beer.
|10.5.07 @ 3:52PM|#
Robert Graves in his World War I memior "Goodbye to All That" talks about going weeks in the trenches and surviving the stress through drinking a bottle of wiskey a day. There were a lot of "bottle a day" commanders in the trenches. The stress of being shot at or being in danger is so great, I could definitely see where you wouldn't notice the effects of alcohol beyond it taking the edge off and allowing you to think straight.
|10.5.07 @ 3:54PM|#
This all makes sense...except for the part about this three day weekend...as if that applies to anyone outside of government, banking and education. Oh wait, I guess that is half the population.
|10.5.07 @ 3:58PM|#
I actually had a friend who obtained two BA's (education and
CompSci) and one MA (CompSec) while drunk. I don't mean just on the
weekends, I mean that he was in a mild state of inebriation roughly
80% of the time during college.
I got a couple of degrees myself (cum laude, thanks for
asking) while fairly stoned. I did take a year off when I started
law school, but other than that, I was buzzed off and on throughout
my (ahem) higher education.
The Wine Commonsewer|10.5.07 @ 3:59PM|#
It's typical government mandated holiday crap. Columbus actually
sailed into sight of land on October 12 but CONgress says we are to
celebrate that on the second Monday in October so we can all have a
three day weekend.
Fire up the RV's boys, let's get out there on the road and clog it
up so nobody can get anywhere.
The Wine Commonsewer|10.5.07 @ 4:05PM|#
And speaking of the Founding Fathers, I blogged this and I love
it:
.....in 1787, two days before their work was done, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention adjourned to a tavern for some rest, and according to the bill they drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 of whiskey, 22 of port, 8 of hard cider and 7 bowls of punch so large that, it was said, ducks could swim around in them.
Then they went back to work and finished founding the new Republic. Note the 55 delegates and 54 bottles of Madeira. Which founder was slacking?
The rest
here if you don't mind me shilling for Big Wine (okay little
whine).
lunchstealer|10.5.07 @ 4:28PM|#
Sixstring,
Oh, yeah. Banks and government types get that day off. Too used to
the tech world, where they will raid all other holidays to make
that Wednesday 4th into a five-day-weekend.
|10.5.07 @ 4:54PM|#
The explains why moderate drinking was part of the original symosiums and many religious rites. It helped people absorbe the lessons.
|10.5.07 @ 5:06PM|#
The explains why moderate drinking was part of the original
symosiums and many religious rites. It helped people absorbe the
lessons.
Which in turn explains why immoderate drinking--and the lessons
that repeated wearing of beer goggles should teach us--seldom
does...
Mad Max|10.5.07 @ 7:33PM|#
"Woo-hoo! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!"
In certain Slavic languages, "smrt" means "death."
|10.5.07 @ 9:38PM|#
"If alcohol didn't have so many calories..."
WAIT!! There's calories in alcohol? DAMMIT!! That explains a
shitload...
Actualy, the way I understand it, the calories in alcohol are not
the same as calories in a twinkie.
Take Vodka,(but leave me some),40%alcohol, 60%water, you will often
hear the people say that hard alcohol has more calories in than
beer or than so and so food.
However, how do they measure calories? By burning a piece of food
and seeing how much the burn raises the temperature of a sq. cm of
water. (1 calorie= amount of energy required to raise 1 sq. cm of
water 1 degree celicus).
That being said a pine 2x4 would contain a shit load of calories
but you can eat as much pine as you want and you probably wont gain
a pound.
Pure alcohol eventually digests into vitamin c, which is something
a body can use directly for energy. There are number of substances
that the body can use for energy like certain simple sugars etc...,
however where the sugars if not used will turn into fat vitamin c
will not.
So calories from alcohol will not give you a belly, thats why you
have the expresion beer belly, and not vodka or whiskey belly, beer
has calories from the hops which digest into sugars and can get
turned into fat if you dont use them, the alchol in the beer will
turn into vit.C. and get burned up or be pissed out.
The first issue to watch out for, is vitamin C in the blood will be
burned for energy before other sources like sugar, so if u drink
whiskey and have a twinky your body might use up the energy from
the alcohol and store the twinky energy as fat. Second, alcohol
makes you hungry so you often eat more after drinking then you
usually would.
Now you know, go drink,
P.S. corrections and clarifications are welcome
|10.6.07 @ 12:31AM|#
Correction 1: That being said a pine 2x4 would contain a shit
load of calories but you can eat as much pine as you want and you
probably wont gain a pound.
Termites can digest wood. I can't. Never bought a termite a drink,
so don't know the effect of alcohol on termites. Weird tangent
here. Ever see a drunk termite?
Correction, or clarification 2: Pure alcohol eventually digests
into vitamin c.
Huh? Please cite a reference. If true, why am I popping Vitamin C
when I could be drinking to stave off illness? I just thought the
alcohol in the bloodstream killed off any nasty buggies.
|10.6.07 @ 1:34AM|#
oops i mean acetic acid, not vitamin c, I read this a while ago
and didnt have my daily dose of alcohol to jog the memory, so you
are absolutely right.
.....
The first step in the metabolism of alcohol is the oxidation of
ethanol to acetaldehyde catalyzed by alcohol/dehydrogenase
containing the coenzyme NAD+. The acetaldehyde is further oxidized
to acetic acid and finally CO2 and water through
the citric acid cycle. A number of metabolic effects from alcohol
are directly linked to the production of an excess of both NADH and
acetaldehyde.
CH3CH2OH + NAD+ ---> CH3CH=O + NADH + H+
http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/642alcoholmet.html
|10.6.07 @ 9:09AM|#
I swithched from beer and whiskey to just whisky and lost my 35 pound basketball belly. At first I also avoided carbs, but now I'm eating pretty much like before and it is staying off. Val, and my dad, are dead on about whiskey calories.
|10.6.07 @ 1:14PM|#
"Termites can digest wood. I can't. Never bought a termite a
drink, so don't know the effect of alcohol on termites. Weird
tangent here. Ever see a drunk termite?"
Termite walks into a bar and asks, "Is the bartender here?"
Thanks folks. I'm here all week. Don't forget to tip your
waitresses ... etc., etc.
|10.6.07 @ 3:33PM|#
People really need to stop dropping the "drinking is good for
your heart" thing. There's good evidence that the studies which
show this lumped teetotalers with people who recently quit
drinking, skewing the results:
See here
The Wine Commonsewer|10.7.07 @ 10:55AM|#
Swim, guess they missed that study of old fossils where the
teetotalers and the alkies both had much less life expectancy than
moderate drinkers at age 65. I'm too lazy to find it for you but it
is a relatively recent study and was fairly comprehensive.
And even my doctor, Miss Julie Ann, who spent quality education
hours at Loma Linda (and you know how those Adventists feel about
alcohol) told me that a glass of red wine a day is good for your
heart. The only dubious advice she ever gave me was to suggest that
one was ALL you need. I said, what good is that?
|10.7.07 @ 5:25PM|#
This has been known for quite some time.
"Well you 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.
Now, as we know, excessive drinking of alcohol 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. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few
beers."
db|10.7.07 @ 6:07PM|#
just in time for a three-day weekend holiday
huh?
What holiday? Must be one of those bullshit ones that only
government employees get off.
The Wine Commonsewer|10.7.07 @ 11:57PM|#
db, which used to stand for Dog Brother. For not being a holiday
there sure was a mess of traffic Friday night. It took the Flooze
an hour and a half to get from Fullerton to Imperial Highway at
which point she called and said, I am turning around and going back
home. I told her that was fine, that I'd come pick up my nephew on
Saturday AM. It normally would take 40 minutes to get to our place
from hers at 9:30 on a Friday night.
Thanks Arnie, glad to see that 140 billion you plan to spend has
helped the traffic so got dam much. [turns and spits]
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