Women, Alcoholism and the Brain
Alcoholism and alcohol abuse typically produce a devastating effect on those who suffer from and engage in it. We've all learned by now that chronic alcohol abuse has a stronger, more detrimental impact on women than it does men. Credit it to a traditionally smaller body mass, having lower levels of water in the body, or the fact that women have less concentration of enzymes that are critical in the role of metabolizing alcohol, women across the board cannot handle the consumption of alcohol to the point their male counterparts can. This is well established and proven time and time again by researchers in the addiction field.
What is new however is the recent research being done by scientists with regard to alcoholism and its effects on the part of the brain that controls thinking, balance and motor capacity. These scientists are learning that similarly to the harsher reactions women have with heavy alcohol intake with regard to the liver and heart for example, women also face greater risks of developing potentially irreversible brain damage. Two recent studies have shown "deficiencies in the gray and white matter and cerebrospinal fluid of alcoholic subjects." This gray and white matter is critical to the brain functioning properly. Daniel Hommer, a researcher at the National Institute of Health, was one of the scientists who recently found these deficiencies in chronic alcohol abusing women. "It's the first time that it's been shown that the part of the brain that does the thinking, the cerebral cortex, is more affected in women alcoholics than men," Hommer explained.
Alcoholism and The Female Brain
In addition, the effects of alcoholism and chronic alcohol abuse are causing this brain damage to happen at earlier ages than previously believed. In fact, by their 30s, female alcoholics who only began drinking in their 20s may already be having difficulties completing simple problem-solving tasks and impulse control, according to one of the studies recently published in the Journal of American Psychiatry. Alcoholic women are having these difficulties at a higher rate than men in spite of the fact that women drink less and typically start drinking about 10 years later than men do. Hommer and his colleagues hope that their research "will make people aware that heavy drinking in the 20s is dangerous- and that includes binge drinking."
Study after study continue to demonstrate the more pronounced effects that alcoholism has on the female body, and research has just confirmed that it leads to the degeneration of the female brain at a significantly faster rate than the male brain as well. Alcoholism is no laughing matter and there is no safety net to ensure that your hard partying ways in the past or present won't come back to haunt you much earlier than you originally thought.
What is new however is the recent research being done by scientists with regard to alcoholism and its effects on the part of the brain that controls thinking, balance and motor capacity. These scientists are learning that similarly to the harsher reactions women have with heavy alcohol intake with regard to the liver and heart for example, women also face greater risks of developing potentially irreversible brain damage. Two recent studies have shown "deficiencies in the gray and white matter and cerebrospinal fluid of alcoholic subjects." This gray and white matter is critical to the brain functioning properly. Daniel Hommer, a researcher at the National Institute of Health, was one of the scientists who recently found these deficiencies in chronic alcohol abusing women. "It's the first time that it's been shown that the part of the brain that does the thinking, the cerebral cortex, is more affected in women alcoholics than men," Hommer explained.
Alcoholism and The Female Brain
In addition, the effects of alcoholism and chronic alcohol abuse are causing this brain damage to happen at earlier ages than previously believed. In fact, by their 30s, female alcoholics who only began drinking in their 20s may already be having difficulties completing simple problem-solving tasks and impulse control, according to one of the studies recently published in the Journal of American Psychiatry. Alcoholic women are having these difficulties at a higher rate than men in spite of the fact that women drink less and typically start drinking about 10 years later than men do. Hommer and his colleagues hope that their research "will make people aware that heavy drinking in the 20s is dangerous- and that includes binge drinking."
Study after study continue to demonstrate the more pronounced effects that alcoholism has on the female body, and research has just confirmed that it leads to the degeneration of the female brain at a significantly faster rate than the male brain as well. Alcoholism is no laughing matter and there is no safety net to ensure that your hard partying ways in the past or present won't come back to haunt you much earlier than you originally thought.
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