Alcohol and the Brain

Alcohol is good for your heart, they say. It’s also good for your brain. Sort of.

All things in moderation. A study performed by a team of Swedish researchers found that small amounts of alcohol fed to mice led to the growth of extra brain cells. They pointed out, however, that these cells may have taught the mice to be dependent on alcohol. After they were given alcohol, the mice preferred it to water. The researchers also suggested that while neurons that grew were normal, alcohol may simply have facilitated their growth through a tranquilizing effect that reduced stress.

A calm mind grows neurons more healthfully than a stressed mind, for the most part, although research has shown how certain high-stress experience can enhance particular memories. And while alcohol’s effect on growing neurons is being studied, ample evidence shows how excessive alcohol intake can be damaging to existing neurons.

As social creatures, humans have integrated alcohol consumption into a variety of activities. Getting black-out drunk is certainly bad, but even the placebo effect of feeling relaxed with a pint glass in your hand can be beneficial to the brain. This is not to say you should insist everyone must imbibe for their own good. Rather, by drinking in moderation, damage, if any, is minimized, and its possible actual physical growth can occur. In the meantime, pleasurable interaction with family and friends is good for both your brain and your heart.

And therefor it is important that drinking, even in moderation, be done in safe environments with considerable awareness for the effects it can have. If alcohol can be good for the brain, the damage it does in other ways can be mitigated by 

• Making sure you’re well fed before having a drink
• Making sure you stay well hydrated before, during, and after any drinking

Special cases aside, there’s nothing wrong with having a drink now and again. Consider the analogy of driving car: there’s always the potential of getting into a crash, but driving the speed limit and wearing your seat belt will decrease the risk to a point low enough to tolerable, allowing for all the conveniences that driving affords. Go careening around corners at high speed and wreck is inevitable, and doesn’t even afford any real convenience.