That overdoing the drinks is harmful to health is an undeniable fact. But that does not prevent – according to data from the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality – the average age of starting alcohol consumption in Spain is only 13 years. Not that 75% of teens ages 14 to 18 have ever drunk, or that six out of ten teens have ever gotten drunk, or that one in three has done so in the past 30 days.
These young people occasionally drink excessively, ignoring that too much alcohol causes brain damage and cognitive problems, as has just been confirmed by an investigation by Spanish scientists from the University of Santiago de Compostela and the University of Miño (Braga, Portugal).
A brain with a permanent hangover
Previous studies have already shown that alcoholism causes abnormalities in brain activity, highly visible on electroencephalographs (EEG). This new work has found that the occasional drunkenness caused by a large intake of alcohol in a short time (that is, the habitual pattern of alcohol consumption of many Spanish adolescents and young people, the famous bottle ) also disrupts brain function.
Specifically, the beta and theta oscillations of the right temporal lobe and the bilateral occipital cortex of young individuals in a state of rest change. These are electrical oscillations that, when altered, can cause difficulties in processing information and controlling impulses, something that in the case of people under twenty years of age is a serious problem, since their brain has not yet finished developing. especially the prefrontal cortex, an area very affected by excess alcohol.
In statements to the Sinc (Scientific News and Information Service), Eduardo López-Caneda, from the University of Miño and one of the authors of the research, explains that “the changes found could indicate a decrease in the ability to respond to stimuli external and possible difficulties in the capacity of information processing in young compulsive drinkers, and may represent some of the first signs of alcohol-induced brain damage ”.
Scientific bottle
The researchers carried out the study with 80 students from the Complutense University of Madrid selected from questionnaires about their habitual alcohol consumption, to divide them into two groups of 40 subjects: those who did not drink or drank little, and those who occasionally (late week, parties …) incurred the pattern of consumption known as binge drinking: taking five or more drinks in two hours, in the case of men; or four or more, in that of women. These are not unusual amounts, if we consider that surveys indicate that half of Spanish adolescents do not believe that consuming four or five drinks on weekends can be harmful.
The electroencephalographs performed on the study subjects resulted in the aforementioned alterations in the brain activity of the drinkers, but the scientists emphasize the need for more studies on the effects of habits such as the bottle on the brains of young people, to measure up to which point affects its development and affects functions such as memory.
