Cheers to that
Wha you say? Wuz zat? Hang on lemme puh on my glasses so ken heer yu biter.
Good news, drunkards: drinking makes you happy and smart. This from an alcohol study center no less – notorious wet blankets!
The Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that stopping drinking – whether you’re a full-blown stumblebum or just an occasional tippler – can lead to health problems including depression. And get this: failing to hit the sauce with regularity (and aplomb!) can actually create a reduced capacity in your dried up raisin of a brain to produce new neurons, aka neurogenesis.
From the press release:
“ ‘This research provides the first evidence that long-term abstinence from moderate alcohol drinking – rather than drinking per se – leads to a negative mood state, depression,’ ” said study senior author Clyde W. Hodge, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and pharmacology in the UNC School of Medicine.
The study also found that the emergence of depression was associated with a profound reduction in the number of neural stem cells (cells that will become neurons) and in the number of new neurons in a brain region known as the hippocampus. This brain region is critical for normal learning and memory, and recent studies show that the development of neurons in the hippocampus may regulate mood.”
The kicker: the study was funded by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
