The Claim: Alcohol Kills Brain Cells - The New York Times

The Claim: Alcohol Kills Brain Cells
THE FACTS -- When ancient Greeks wanted to reassure guests that their wine had not been spiked with poison, they toasted to good health. While that may be less of a worry today, there remain hazards from indulging in too much alcohol -- including, of course, hangovers. But one thing people who drink socially probably don't need to worry about is sacrificing brain cells in the process.
The research indicates that adults who drink in moderation are not in danger of losing brain cells.
The notion that alcohol snuffs out brain cells has been around for years. Many studies have linked drinking with mental deficits, and long-term damage from years of heavy drinking has been well documented. The developing brain is particularly vulnerable, some studies show, putting teenagers and unborn children at greatest risk.
But Dr. Roberta J. Pentney, a former researcher at the State University of New York at Buffalo, found that alcohol disrupts brain function in adults by damaging message-carrying dendrites on neurons in the cerebellum, a structure involved in learning and motor coordination. This reduces communication between neurons, alters their structure and causes some of the impairment associated with intoxication. It does not kill off entire cells, however.
A study in 1999 that examined the brains of alcoholics appeared to confirm this. Published in the journal Neuroscience, the research found that subjects who developed Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a severe disorder that ravages the memory and stems from a thiamine deficiency associated with alcoholism, had a marked reduction in cell density in the cerebellum.
But there was little difference between alcoholics who did not develop the syndrome and normal subjects, suggesting that it was largely a lack of thiamine in the Wernicke-Korsakoff patients that killed off their cells.
Other studies, including one published in The British Medical Journal in 1997, have produced similar findings.
THE BOTTOM LINE -- Alcohol may not kill brain cells per se, but it can impair brain function, among other things. ANAHAD O'CONNOR