There are numerous studies highlighting the link between alcohol consumption and several health conditions. A new piece of research has gone further to demonstrate how much change your brain goes through upon your first sip of alcohol. The changes include high risk of alcohol dependence, the New York Post reports.
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Lasting changes
A team of researchers from three German universities have reason to believe that your very first drink in life can alter your brain forever, causing ‘permanent cellular changes’. They arrived at this conclusion after running series of brain scans on mice that had been intoxicated for the first time.
The data revealed that the rodents developed lasting changes in how their neurons communicated even after their binge, particularly by disrupting the flow of energy created by the mitochondria. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Friday said:
To better understand the changes in the brain that support the transition from sporadic drinking to chronic alcohol abuse, we identified distinct effects of single ethanol exposure on a molecular, cellular, and behavioral level
Addiction
They found similar changes in fruit flies — and both were more likely to go on and increase their alcohol consumption over time, then relapse later in life, according to New York Post. These alcohol-induced changes support the theory that ‘first alcohol intoxication at an early age is a critical risk factor’ for future drinking and addiction.
Dr. Henrike Scholz, University of Cologne, who worked with colleagues at the Universities of Mannheim and Heidelberg on the study said:
Identifying lasting ethanol-dependent changes is an important first step in understanding how acute drinking can turn into chronic alcohol abuse.
The researchers said more studies need to be done to understand the causes of addiction that could lead to more efficient treatment for alcohol and other types of substance abuse.
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