From researchers at the University of Pittsburgh comes a study that fits our clinical experience with brain imaging “” alcohol lowers blood flow to the brain. Here is an abstract that should give you pause when you think about that second drink.
Christie IC, Price J, Edwards L, Muldoon M, Meltzer CC, Jennings JR. Alcohol consumption and cerebral blood flow among older adults. Alcohol. 2008 Jun;42(4):269-75. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh
A substantial epidemiological literature now supports the existence of a J or U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and a broad range cardiovascular health outcomes including stroke. Although it is well documented that alcoholics exhibit both global and regional cerebral hypoperfusion in the sober state, little is known regarding the effects of a broader range of alcohol consumption on cerebral blood flow (CBF). The present study employed positron emission tomography with H(2)(15)O to assess quantitative global and regional CBF in 86 participants (51 men and 35 women; mean age 60.1) as a function of self-reported weekly alcohol consumption (none, <1, 1 to <7, 7 to <15, and >15 drinks per week). Analyses controlling for age, gender, and vascular health (carotid intima-media thickness) revealed that, relative to the weighted population mean, global CBF was greater in the lightest alcohol consumption group (<1 per week) and lower in the heaviest (>15 per week). Effects did not vary across regions of interest. This report is the first to describe an inverted J-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and CBF in the absence of stroke.
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I just bought your book “Change your Brain, Change your Life” and was in tears before I finished the introduction.
I put the book down and went out and bought a lotter ticket in the hopes that some day, I will bring my adult son to your clinics for evaluation and treatment. He’s 24 and on the streets in Venice Beach CA…he’s struggled literally since the womb. ADHD? Bi Polar? Not sure. Endless medication trials, side effects and very little progress since he was a week old until he left home at 17.
Now we can add substance abuse to the list of things he struggles with. I pray he will get help before he kills himself, kills another or is killed by another. Violence is a way of life for him. Anger and confusion are a way of life. He is very smart. He has a very good, caring, loving soul/heart…but as you say, if the brain wont function, how can their life roll along as they hope and dream?
I’m also wondering…in the SPECT scan studies, can you tease out the mental illness components from A/D damage? Do they show up as different/separate? With an adult who has very poor ability to self report, how much of a roll can family play in the evaluation process?
I need that lottery!
I’ll keep reading and keep praying. It’s not over till it’s over. And this fat lady ain’t singing yet!
Thank you for all of the work you do.
Cherrie
A non-technical interpretation:
There is a documented link between alcohol consumption and problems with heart health.
Alcoholics are known to have reduced oxygen in the brain, even while sober.
Little is known about the effect on brain oxygenation at lower levels of consumption.
In this study, 51 and 35 women, mean age 60, received PET scans to determine oxygenation of blood flow in the brain.
They were put in groups according to their self reported weekly alcohol consumption (none, <1, 1 to <7, 7 to 15 drinks per week).
Controlling for age, gender, and vascular health , blood oxygen in the brain was higher in the lightest alcohol consumption group (15 per week).
How much lower the oxygen level is in the highest level users is not stated.
No idea what a J or U shaped association is, but it can’t be good! Statisticians…
edit above:
higher in the lightest alcohol consumption group (<1 per week).
I’m very grateful for studies that prove alcohol is not good for the brain. But in our home, we don’t need studies… we already have living, breathing proof. We’ve adopted 3 children who all have Fetal Alcohol Sydrome/Effect and THEY are living, breathing proof that alcohol is NOT good for the brain and changes the brain.
Although our children’s alcohol effected brain damage is permanent, we’ve found much help in your books “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life” and “Healing ADD.”
I am so grateful for your work Dr. Amen and I look forward to your book on helping the Fetal Alcohol Effected Child… that you may not know you’re going to write it yet!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your work, Carol Z
Cherrie, I had the same reaction when listening to the audio version of the book. I have a son who is also 24 years old and suffers from ADHD? asperbergers? It appears these young adults are very susceptible to the substance abuse issues – and my son is there too. He is still functioning on his own- living on his own and working but i wonder… how long. Anger, confusion, no sense of purpose, no realization of consequences, no forethought…. I fear with all the roadblocks in his way he is losing his optimism and faith in others and his ability to dream and hope.
I too wish to win a lottery – i am already spending much on psychologist appt and medication. Fortunately in this past year my son has agreed to treatment and has allowed me to be his ‘companion’ or accountable member of his circle. But, what impact the SPECT scan would have on my son! Would he be able to accept the seriousness of it all and actually work on the treatment? Like your son he has a very poor ability to self report. That is why it is crucial for me to be part of his therapy – but draining because it requires me to constantly be ‘checking’ that he is following up and then…what consequences are there if he doesn’t. As he says ‘I am an adult – i don’t have to do this’.
This lady is not singing yet either. I keep reading, praying, and going to appointments.
I too thank Dr. Amen for the work he has done. I have been encouraged and enlightened.
Bev
This is in response to Cherrie. I’m praying for you and your son, but for both your sakes’ do not continue to play the lottery! The government wants you to keep playing because they make money from it, and it’s very rare for someone who needs money to win a big jackpot. It’s really a voluntary tax on the poor and desperate! Ask, ask, ask anyone you can think of, and look online also, to get help for your son. Keep praying for help. It’s difficult when he’s an adult, but keep praying and keep trying. May God bless you and keep you in his care.
My heart and prayer goes out to you and your son. My grandson was diagnosed with ADHD in grammar school and put on medicine. Later my son test showed he had it also. Then a test showed that I had it. The cost for the evaluation and treatment is out of range for us also.
But I know that God still heals today—–so I am praying for your son also…..I know the heartache that goes with ADD and the trials it causes.
Best wishes. Don’t give up hope though. I used to drink heavily but stopped. I do have to deal with what I did now. Alcoholism runs in my family. I can’t drink now at all without turning totally stupid – not just at the time but afterward. However, I didn’t know about CBF and alcohol. I’ve forwarded this to as many people I can think who might appreciate knowing this too. Easy for me to say “Don’t despair” but I can say from experience that recovery is possible even when it seems impossible. Never easy. Always difficult. Most importantly, the person has to want to be well too, all things being equal. I suffered from seizures 2003-2006. I couldn’t remember much and mixed up my words and was really “losing it” but something in me just kept plugging away to get me to try to take care, be careful too of doctors and all the prescription medications, do what I needed to/had to. I am not 100% but much much better. My short term memory is coming back and my long term also. I can concentrate much better than I used to – I can actually read again – hooray! So, and I can’t get into everything about my past but suffice it to say, I ended up in some horrible situations thanks to alcoholism and other abuse. Lucky to be alive. Searching for some way to create meaning from all I’ve been through without totally pissing off my family, my husband and daughter, and others too. I mean I’d like to do a memoir. Perhaps this might also appeal to your child? He needs to learn to create meaning from what’s he been through and going through too. I’d try first to get him to go to AA. Therapy with the right person can help. Staying away from anything that isn’t helping, including, if necessary, caffiene. Check out anything else that could be affecting blood flow to the brain. THANK GOD FOR Dr. Amen, huh?! Best wishes. Good luck.
Cherrie – yes, pls stop wasting your money on lotto and spend your time in prayer. I, too, have a son, 41 yrs, who has quit his job, lives with me, smokes, drinks, and I don’t know what to do. sits around and watches TV and plays video games. But, how do you get a grown man who doesn’t want any help, to get help? You are in my prayers.
BY A “J OR U SHAPED ASSOCIATION” I believe what is he means is a graph more like a U flipped onto its side. Imagine a graph with cross hairs, and the bottom of the U is touching at the origin, where the cross hairs meet. Ignore the bottom half of the U, which would correspond to negative numbers of drinks per week. That’s why they call it a J shape. The shape of the graph is really more like turning a U on its side, splitting it down the middle, and using only the upper half which is shaped more like the mirror of a J now.
Now, Number of drinks would be the X axis (from the cross hairs going to the Right) and oxygen loss to the brain would be the Y axis (from the cross hairs going UP) At zero to one drinks per week on a scale left to right, you’re near zero change in oxygen on the scale down to up. As you move the first increment to the right (two to six drinks per week), you get a very steep slope of the graph upward. As you move further and further to the right with more and more drinks, sure, the decrease in oxygen to the brain is less and less but not rising as steeply as it was at first.
This would explain why Dr. Amen put in his header, “reconsider that SECOND drink” because the jump from one to two drinks per week is where the greatest change is.
If the shape of the graph is truly a J or U shape, representing an actual relationship between alcohol consumption and oxygen loss, then we could extrapolate the points between the collected data to also fall upon the J shape, and we could conclude even more. What we could conclude would be that the first teaspoon of alcohol per week has even more influence than the first cupful, because the change from zero to non-zero is where the slope is steepest.
Also note that the study suppors what Aniwa said above, that the change in oxygen is not just while under the influence, but a reduction in oxygen to the brain ALL WEEK. The 86 participants did not take a swig just before their scans. They probably came in on a weekday, probably drove to the scan so the scans were likely taken hours or days after the last drink. This confirms 24/7 loss of oxygen to the brain for people who have had as little as one glass of wine for the six nights previous.
Im 45 years old and have every reason in the world to believe I have ADHD.As an adult its been (near) impossible to get anyone (on a professional level) to listen to me. However in 2002 while in a residentual treatment program for alcohol & substance abuse-I was seen by a doctor who not only listened to me but HEARD what i had to say. To give an accurate self report is impossible so prior to my appts I wrote things down that felt was relivent. It helped. That was the only time i was diagnosed w/ ADHD. He prescribed me Adderal & it helped tremedouly. But after completing the program I couldnt see that Dr. and the RX ran out.
I was almost 4 yrs old – then it wae refered to as hyperactivity. The way my mom told it, she was lucky if I slept 6 hrs a night.She said I would be upstairs and knocking things off the walls dowstairs.She took me to the peditrician & asked him to calm me down or keep me ! I was put on ritilin, Iknew it as a “happy pill”.And I believed it made me happy.Untill I was 10 & they took the happy pills away……