Heavy Social Drinkers Show Brain Damage, Study Finds

[gulfcoastliberal]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Heavy social drinkers show a pattern of brain damage similar to that seen in hospitalized alcoholics -- enough to impair day-to-day functioning, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Brain scans show clear evidence of damage, and tests of reading, balance and other functions show people who drink more than 100 drinks a month have problems, the researchers said.

"Oftentimes alcoholics are the last ones to know they have a problem," said Dr. Peter Martin of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, who wrote a commentary on the report.

So that explains not reading newspapers and PDBs...

Link

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040414/hl_nm/health_drinkers_dc_7

[leanings]

1. 100 drinks a month...

that's a pretty fair amount. I drink pretty heavily, heavily enough so that I quit calling myself a "social drinker" a while ago, but I don't know that I put away too much more than a hundred drinks a month. At what point are you no longer a social drinker and are just a "drunk"?

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. Hmmm....

Did they factor in the possibility that these "moderate" drinkers were actually heavy drug users as well?..

[Claire Beth]

3. Dubya is the pefect example! n/t

[Moderator]

4. Please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=486035