Sobering Facts about your Brain and Alcohol
Most of us know the dangers of excessive drinking. It affects all of us because of the devastating consequences.
Excessive alcohol drinking does affect your health and those around you because of the increased risk of injury, spousal or child abuse, risky sexual practices, liver disease, hypertension and gastrointestinal cancers.
Chronic drinking increases the risk for dementia, stroke and psycho-social impairments. Alcohol has a ripple effect in the immediate present and one that spans over several generations. I have not met one person who did not have some alcoholism in their family tree. I find a clinical connection with high lead and alcoholism.
Our recovery protocols include heavy metal testing and detoxification. We run extensive baseline labs to check your B-vitamin levels, heavy metal status, gut function and brain chemistry.
Can you drink and think at the same time?
Low alcohol use might lower the risk for dementia. Heavy consumption causes brain injury. Middle-aged men who drank more than 2.5 drinks per day are fast tracked for cognitive decline in all areas, especially memory, over a period of 10 years.
Researchers did find that fish oil is protective against alcohol-induced dementia in animal studies. I don't condone heavy drinking, but it might be of value to take your fish oils and a B complex right before you go to a social event.
Children and Alcohol
Most cases of alcohol and drug abuse begin in adolescence. Patterns that get established in adolescence are determinants for later substance use behaviors and associated disorders. Drinking in pregnancy has disastrous effects on the developing fetus's brain.
Individuals with mental illness are more likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs. One third of alcohol abusers suffers from a mental illness. Excessive drinking increases the risk for legal troubles, occupational impairments, domestic abuse and increases the odds of attempting and committing suicide.
Gender Differences
Women are far more vulnerable to a serotonin imbalance caused by heavy drinking than men. Low serotonin equals low mood. Low serotonin is associated with chronic disease and stems from impaired gut function. We keep liquid serotonin in stock for our patients in recovery.
What is the neuroscience behind alcohol in our brains?
Alcohol, in social drinking, produces increases in dopamine in the mesocorticolimbic reward pathway. Your reward circuitry in your nucleus accumbens gets activated and you experience pleasure while your responses to fearful stimuli lessen. In an odd twist, heavy drinkers have a blunted pleasure activation and experience reduced pleasure. Alcoholism and alcohol attachment is a complex issue that will require an effort from everyone who lives in the world village. Practitioners and patients can create an authentic non-judgemental space where real healing takes place.
We offer Neurotransmitter testing to identify which amino acids your body needs for recovery. Xymogen's B-Activ, Omega 820 and AppeCurb are part of our recovery protocol at Second Nature. Call us to order.
