Moderate to Binge Drinking Habit Decreases Growth of Adult Brain Cells

Till date it was known that drinking a couple of glasses of wine each day has been considered as a good mode to boost cardiovascular and brain health. But little do we know that there exists a fine line between moderate drinking and binge drinking.

According to a new study by the Rutgers University, moderate drinking can decrease the making of adult brain cells by as much as 40 percent. It was led by author Megan Anderson, a graduate student working with Tracey J. Shors, Professor II in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology.

According to the study, moderate to binge drinking that consists of drinking less during the week and more on the weekends, significantly reduces the structural integrity of the adult brain.

According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, men who drink 14 drinks a week and women who drink seven are considered at-risk drinkers. Although college students commonly binge drink, according to the institute, 70 percent of binge drinking episodes involved adults age 26 and older.

"Moderate drinking can become binge drinking without the person realizing it," said Anderson."In the short term there may not be any noticeable motor skills or overall functioning problems, but in the long term this type of behavior could have an adverse effect on learning and memory."

Shors and Anderson worked with postdoctoral fellow Miriam Nokia from the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland to model moderate to heavy drinking in humans using rodents that reached a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent. On doing so they found that brain cell production was affected negatively.

The researchers noticed that the level of intoxication in rats comparable to about 3-4 drinks for women and five drinks for men, the number of nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain were reduced by nearly 40 percent compared to those in the abstinent group of rodents. 

The new neurons are made in the hippocampus part of the brain. This is responsible for some types of new learning.

According to Anderson, the level of alcohol was not enough to impair the motor skills of either male or female rats or prevent them from associative learning in the short-term. This substantial decrease in brain cell numbers over time could have profound effects on the structural plasticity of the adult brain because these new cells communicate with other neurons to regulate brain health.

"If this area of your brain was affected every day over many months and years, eventually you might not be able to learn how to get somewhere new or to learn something new about your life," said Anderson, a graduate fellow in the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology. "It's something that you might not even be aware is occurring."

"This research indicates that social or daily drinking may be more harmful to brain health than what is now believed by the general public," she said.

This study was posted online and scheduled to be published in the journal Neuroscience on  November 8.