Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
Alcohol abuse over the long term has been shown in many brain imaging studies to actually, physically shrink the region of the brain that commands learning and memory. The shrinkage is more extensive in the cortex of the frontal lobe, which is known to be the center of higher intellectual functions, and of course this shrinkage will increase with continued alcohol use and age. Short-term memory loss is usually the first noticeable sign of alcohol related damage.
Progressive brain shrinkage was shown in a study that conducted periodic imaging in alcoholics over a five year period. The amount of brain shrinkage was directly related to the amount of alcohol consumed, but there was no question that the shrinkage far exceeded anything in the normal range.
Any alcoholic who drinks larges amounts of alcohol over a long period of time is a candidate for alcohol related brain damage. How extensive the damage is depends on the system of the drinker, the type and amount of alcohol consumed, and diet that accompanies the chronic drinking.
Nutritional problems caused by alcohol consumption can also contribute to brain damage. If the individual drinks enough alcohol, malnutrition can actually be a result. Vital parts of the brain suffer damage due to vitamin deficiencies, particularly thiamine deficiency. Alcohol causes toxicity in the system during and after use, which damages vital organs such as the brain, liver, kidneys and pancreas.
Alcohol also has a serious effect on the central nervous system.
Much of the damage caused by alcohol is reversible if it is caught early enough. Sometimes it will disappear completely. Complete abstinence from alcohol, along with an improved diet and taking vitamins, especially thiamine, vitamin B1, will help this reversal.
http://howistoppeddrinking.org/alcoholism-and-brain-damage
Progressive brain shrinkage was shown in a study that conducted periodic imaging in alcoholics over a five year period. The amount of brain shrinkage was directly related to the amount of alcohol consumed, but there was no question that the shrinkage far exceeded anything in the normal range.
Any alcoholic who drinks larges amounts of alcohol over a long period of time is a candidate for alcohol related brain damage. How extensive the damage is depends on the system of the drinker, the type and amount of alcohol consumed, and diet that accompanies the chronic drinking.
Nutritional problems caused by alcohol consumption can also contribute to brain damage. If the individual drinks enough alcohol, malnutrition can actually be a result. Vital parts of the brain suffer damage due to vitamin deficiencies, particularly thiamine deficiency. Alcohol causes toxicity in the system during and after use, which damages vital organs such as the brain, liver, kidneys and pancreas.
Alcohol also has a serious effect on the central nervous system.
Much of the damage caused by alcohol is reversible if it is caught early enough. Sometimes it will disappear completely. Complete abstinence from alcohol, along with an improved diet and taking vitamins, especially thiamine, vitamin B1, will help this reversal.
http://howistoppeddrinking.org/alcoholism-and-brain-damage
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My 6mo twin DD's are EBF and just started rice cereal on the first. Everything has been going fine except this morning one of them had a diaper rash (lots of redness around her anus). I read this as one of the signs of an allergy. BUT I did just buy a different brand diaper yesterday (which they have used randomly before w/no issues). Do you think its the cereal or the diaper? Im ready to start...
oh, and don't forget it does talk about how it can be reversable in many cases so don't think your brain shrunk too bad! lol. have a great day!!!
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: June 19, 2009
Alcohol has long been known to play a role in suicides, but there have been little data regarding which victims use it and how often. Now the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in a large sample of suicide victims whose blood alcohol levels were measured post mortem, one in four had been legally drunk, with a blood alcohol content at or above the federal standard of 0.08, or 8 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
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Health Guide: Alcohol Use
The studys findings were limited because it examined data from only 17 states and because blood alcohol measurements were available for only 70 percent of those who committed suicide in those states. Still, about one-third of those tested had some level of alcohol in their bloodstream at death, the researchers found.
Alcohol is a component of suicidal behavior, said Dr. Alex Crosby, author of the report published on Thursday in the C.D.C.s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It leads to disinhibition, and it can enhance feelings of hopelessness and depression. Alcohol impairs judgment and can lead to much more impulsive behavior."
Any suicide prevention efforts must take that into account and address alcohol and substance abuse as well, he added.
The study was among the first to analyze the role alcohol plays in suicide among different racial and ethnic groups. It found that American Indians and Alaska Natives were most likely to have been drunk when they committed suicide, with 37 percent legally intoxicated at the time of death. Among Hispanics, 29 percent were legally intoxicated when they took their lives.
But, Dr. Crosby emphasized, The most important finding is that alcohol was linked to suicide across all the groups.
Younger adults and men were more likely than women or older people to have been drunk, the study found. Some 28 percent of adults ages 20 to 49 were intoxicated when they committed suicide, and 25 percent of men were intoxicated, compared to 18 percent of women.
The analysis was done by the agencys division of violence prevention. Researchers examined data on 19,255 suicides from 17 states that contributed data to the National Violent Death Reporting System during 2005 and 2006.
Other experts suggested alcohol may play an even more prominent role in suicide in some regions than the study suggests. Dr. Philip A. May, professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, said alcohol plays a role in about 40 percent of suicides in New Mexico.
The younger the individual, no matter what ethnic group, the more impulsive the suicide is, and the more impulsive the suicide is, the more likely alcohol is a major factor or trigger, Dr. May said.
The typical scenario is that a young adult who is already troubled suffers a setback, such as a job loss or the breakup of a relationship, and starts binge drinking. Its unclear if they get drunk in order to commit suicide, or that when theyre drunk they are more likely to do it, Dr. May said. Intoxication may be turned to as a solution but might ultimately trigger the ultimate solution for them that is, killing themselves.