Brain Health: "a fine line between moderate and binge drinking"

A study published in the November 8 issue of Neuroscience looked at the effects of drinking alcohol on the brain of rats. According to the study abstract, the rats “drinking regime resulted in an average blood alcohol concentration of approximately 0.08%,” the legal driving limit in the U.S. According to ScienceDaily:

The researchers discovered that at this level of intoxication in rats -- comparable to about 3-4 drinks for women and five drinks for men -- the number of nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain were reduced by nearly 40 percent compared to those in the abstinent group of rodents. The hippocampus is a part of the brain where the new neurons are made and is also known to be necessary for some types of new learning.

First author M. L. Anderson commented to ScienceDaily:

Moderate drinking can become binge drinking without the person realizing it. In the short term there may not be any noticeable motor skills or overall functioning problems, but in the long term this type of behavior could have an adverse effect on learning and memory.

The study was conducted by researchers working in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University and at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland.

Brain Health: Fish oil helps maintain brain volume

By Dr. John

The first signs of human consciousness were found in Blombos Cave, South Africa and date to 70 to 80 thousand years ago. It is probably no accident that the site is littered with evidence of seafood consumption. Indeed, significant inclusion of seafood and fish in the human diet may represent the final nutritional factor in development of the human mind. 

The typical American diet is profoundly different from that of our Paleolithic ancestors and is increasingly considered the root of many modern diseases.

In a new study reported by EurekAlert, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital's Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center revealed older adults taking fish oil supplements preserved brain volume and had smaller cerebral ventricles (a healthy sign suggesting less brain atrophy). Lead investigator, Lori Daiello, PharmD, states:

"In the imaging analyses for the entire study population, we found a significant positive association between fish oil supplement use and average brain volumes in two critical areas utilized in memory and thinking (cerebral cortex and hippocampus), as well as smaller brain ventricular volumes compared to non-users at any given time in the study. In other words, fish oil use was associated with less brain shrinkage in patients taking these supplements during the ADNI study compared to those who didn't report using them."

This observational study is just one additional piece of evidence demonstrating our continued movement away from the original human diet comes at a price. In this case, a shrinking brain. 

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