Drinking alcohol after a few minutes causes changes in the brain cells, which can lead to their damage if you abuse alcohol, researchers said..

In the experiment, eight men and seven women voluntarily participated. Subjects in the experiment drank alcohol through a straw, lying in a magnetic resonance scanner. It turned out that only six minutes after consuming alcohol in an amount equivalent to three circles of beer, the blood alcohol level increased from 0.05 to 0.06%, and changes occur in brain cells.

Experts have found that brain tissue begins to absorb not glucose (normal brain food), and the sugar contained in the alcoholic beverage. And the higher the concentration of alcohol in the blood, the greater the reduction in the level of substances such as creatine, which protects the brain cells. The level of choline, a component of cell membranes, also decreases.

Observing the subjects the next day after the experiment showed that changes in the metabolites of the brain are completely reversible - provided that the person was healthy and the dose of alcohol was low. But the more it was drunk, the worse the ability of the brain to recover.

Experts believe that the temporary changes caused by alcohol form the basis for irreversible brain damage that occurs in alcoholics. To find this out for sure, experts intend to conduct a number of studies in the near future. By the way, experiments like the one described previously were conducted only on animals.

Medicinform. Net.

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