Opining Online

It seems it’s difficult to overcome the effects of binge drinking no matter how long one has been sober: “The more we have binged — and the younger we have started to binge — the more we experience significant, though often sutble, effects on the brain and cognition.”

Much of the evidence for the impact of frequent binge-drinking comes from some simple but elegant studies done on lab rats by Fulton T. Crews and his former student Jennifer Obernier. Dr. Crews, the director of the University of North Carolina Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, and Dr. Obernier have shown that after a longstanding abstinence following heavy binge-drinking, adult rats can learn effectively — but they cannot relearn.

When circumstances change, they lack the ability to respond appropriately to new circumstances. They’ll keep going back to what worked before even though time after time it no longer works.

As Shakespeare once pointed out without the benefit of studies on lab rats, “O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!”

Psychiatrist Paul Steinberg offers some realistic and possible resolution for the New Year:

1. Stop after one or two drinks. Studies of the Mediterranean diet have shown that one or two drinks on a consistent basis leads to a longer life than pure teetotaling.
2. If you must binge, start at age 40, not at age 16… Just as youth is wasted on the young, so perhaps is alcohol.
3. If you have binged excessively when younger, follow it up with some regular exercise. Get those brain cells regenerated.