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Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#51

Post by SubiculumCode »

In my phd work I was heavily involved in hippocampal segmentation, and I can say with confidence that FSL FIRST is not a state-of-the-art segmentation method. It belongs to an earlier generation of segmentation methods with poorer reliability, which have contributed to a lot of contradictory results in my field of hippocampal development. I would not use it in my research.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273940329_Assessing...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260915135_Volume_of...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274252280_Developme...

[edit] I had meant to point a link to my chapter on hippocampal development. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314194708_Hippocamp...

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#52

Post by loeg »

jMyles wrote: post #42
B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 550 civil servants Bureaucracy causes brain damage. Those with heavier damage took refuge in alcohol.

I'm not sure if you are trying to be funny - if so, you've succeeded. However, this also reads to me like a very plausible explanation. I like the idea of specifically studying this component further.

It's amusing, and also, supported by no less evidence than the causality in the headline.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#53

Post by enraged_camel »

buckbova wrote: post #31
baq wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

desperately seeking non-popular news with non-clickbait articles. got any referrals?

CS Monitor shoots pretty straight https://www.csmonitor.com/ .

Lest people think The Christian Science Monitor is a religiously biased pseudoscience outlet, it isn't. In fact it is one of the best news sources available internationally if you are looking for a fact-based news outlet with excellent reporting and minimal bias.

This Reddit thread has more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cuun9/what_do_yo...

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#54

Post by uiri »

TylerE wrote: post #10
startupdiscuss wrote: post #4

But they define "moderate" as 2 drinks/day for a man. That is 14 drinks a week which puts you in the second highest decile for Americans! https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think...

A "drink" is not in line with common vernacular though. What most people would call a "drink" is usually about 1.5 or more drinks by the medical standard. A decent sized glass of red wine can easily be 3 drinks.

You are correct when it comes to beer and wine. When it comes to liquor, a drink is usually 1.5oz (which is the size of an actual shot) but bars and clubs will frequently pour 1oz and call it a shot.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#55

Post by philipov »

mortenjorck wrote: post #3

Study finds correlation. Article mentions caveat that correlation is not causation. Headline explicitly states causation. This is certainly a very interesting correlation, and demands further study. Perhaps there is a causal link. But it's just (predictably) irresponsible journalism to head such a piece with a factually incorrect headline.

Does that qualify it as fake news?

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#56

Post by scottLobster »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #16
scottLobster wrote: post #12

So just for reference, 14 units of alcohol (the low-end correlated to atrophy) is approximately: 7-9 (US) shots of hard alcohol (assumed 37.5% ABV) 7 pints of Lager (assumed 4% ABV) 9.3 125 ml glasses of average strength wine (assumed 12% ABV) Looks like my 2-5 bottles of beer a week habit is fine. :) http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/...

A single shot of hard liquor is explicitly 1 unit. 1 standard serving is 25ml, *40% (standard for whiskey and vodka ) = 10ml = 1 unit. So 14 units is 14 shots. This is not a coincidence. It's why they call it a "unit", and why the standard "single shot size" is 25ml. (The other measurements are fine) Edit: caveat: I'm European. This may be different in the us!

Yeah I was going off Google for that. The closest standard in the US for a shot is 44 mL, which is close to double the UK "single measure".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_glass

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#57

Post by ythn »

protonfish wrote: post #33
devoply wrote: post #17

Well why wouldn't it. Alcohol is not a health food. It crosses the blood brain barrier and is toxic to cells. So yeah put toxic stuff up there, there will be some consequence.

The mistake you are making is about dosage. All substances are toxic or harmless depending on the amount.

Toxicity isn't the only property of alcohol. Sure, drinking too much water in too little time will kill you, as will alcohol. But high doses of water are going to have relatively benign effects on your brain compared to high doses of, say, alcohol or LSD

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#58

Post by squeaky-clean »

novia wrote: post #45
jogjayr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article says a 12 oz beer (slightly larger than the standard 330ml beer) is 1 drink for the purposes of the study.

According to the study which was linked in another comment [1] they were using the standard defined in [2]. This site shows that one pint of lager counts as 2 units of alcohol. One pint is 19.2 oz [3]. A bottle of beer is usually 12 oz, aka 5/8 of a pint, aka 1.25 units of alcohol. I trust the source over the science journalist. [1] http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2353 [2] https://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/unit-c…

They give a more helpful description within the paper as well.

> 1 unit contains 10 mL or 8 g of alcohol

> 14 units (UK guidance per week for men and women) is equivalent to 4 pints of high strength beer or 5 large glasses of 14% wine (see below)

> 24.5 units (US guidance for men) is equivalent to 7 pints of beer or 9 glasses of wine

So 4 pints of high strength beer is 14 "units". 5.2% is the value used, which I wouldn't consider a very high strength beer at all ;)

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#59

Post by swiley »

leggomylibro wrote: post #49
mortenjorck wrote: post #3

Study finds correlation. Article mentions caveat that correlation is not causation. Headline explicitly states causation. This is certainly a very interesting correlation, and demands further study. Perhaps there is a causal link. But it's just (predictably) irresponsible journalism to head such a piece with a factually incorrect headline.

Study also looks at adults of average age 43 over 30 years; its subjects are heavily weighted in terms of age.

As someone who's young and only drank a couple of times it definitely feels permanent.

Your thinking gets very cloudy very fast and then the cloudiness seems to have this exponential decay. Even days afterward I don't feel quite right.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#60

Post by marmaduke »

baq wrote: post #19
ams6110 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Popular news is all clickbait now. I've just opted out.

desperately seeking non-popular news with non-clickbait articles. got any referrals?

TrueReddit and TrueTrueReddit?
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