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Source: Reuters
The damage caused by alcohol can be clearly seen in the brain
and it's a process that starts sooner than many people think, an
expert has warned.
Dr Mark Daglish, Director of Addiction Psychiatry at Royal Brisbane
and Women's Hospital (RBWH), also says Australian drinkers should
be more mindful of a condition known to doctors as the pickled
walnut effect.
"There are studies going back a long way looking at post-mortem
effects of alcohol on the brain, we can see brain atrophy and we
can see a particular type of damage associated with vitamin
deficiency," Daglish said.
"We also know about alcohol-related dementia where you get
globalised atrophy of the brain following usually years of chronic
alcohol misuse.
"The classic MRI pictures ... show a shrunken brain with extra
fluid about it that we generally nickname the `pickled walnut'
because of what it looks like."
Daglish said alcohol abuse could lead to vitamin B1 deficiency
which could cause memory deficits.
The quantity of alcohol required to cause more serious damage to
the structure of the brain differed for each person, he said, while
genetic factors played a role.
For some families, the liver was the leading organ to be damaged by
alcohol misuse while for others it was the heart or the brain.
Daglish said serious brain damage could be caused by regular
heavy drinking over a lifetime, a pattern of drinking that would
not necessarily raise a red flag for alcoholism.
"You're talking about heavy drinking, you're not talking
necessarily about dependent drinking," Daglish said.
"It's the sort of person who is drinking every day but not
necessarily to intoxication ... they are increasing their risk of
developing gradual (brain) atrophy."
Daglish spoke at the 2009 RBWH Health Care Symposium, which had
lifestyle choices and their consequences as a central theme.
