Recent studies show that brain can recover from alcoholic damage if patients stop drinking as soon as possible. Scans show that quitting drinking can increase the brain volume.
Researchers warned that the longer you continue to drink excessively, the more risk of losing the capacity for brain re-generation. The sooner you do it, the better.
Dr Andreas Bartsch, of the University of Wuerzburg, in Germany said, “The core message from this study is that, for alcoholics, abstinence pays off and enables the brain to regain some substance and to perform better”.
Chronic alcohol abuse causes more lasting damage and poor health. Alcohol may also disrupt the development of new brain cells in adults. Heavy drinking during pregnancy affects the development of the baby’s brain.
Scientists from Germany, Britain, Switzerland and Italy studied the brain’s regenerative ability by measuring the volume, form and function of the brains of 15 alcoholic men and women before and after they stopped drinking to see how much they changed.
They used sophisticated scanning techniques to show that after 38 days without a drink, the brain volume increased by an average of nearly 2 percent. They also performed better in concentration and attention test.
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