ALCOHOL IS A BRAIN DESTROYING DRUG

FROM THE BOCA RATON NEWS

If alcoholic beverages came on the scene today, would you need a prescription from the doctor to buy some?

Alcohol is a drug, you know. A sedative. So the question is fair. The answer to that question goes like this: "The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. would not allow it to be marketed. This answer comes from Dr. Stanley Gitlow, who has studied the effects of alcohol on the body, and has published nearly 200 papers on the subject. He is clinical professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

He made the point while participating in a seminar on the "Executive Alcoholic," sponsored by Silver Hill Foundation in New Canaan, Con. The FDA which passes on the safety of things ingested by humans, would find itself unable to okay alcoholic beverages. They are that bad for humans, according to Dr Gitlow. Research has shown it is impossible at an autopsy to tell the difference between the brain of a punchdrunk fighter and a drunk. The fighter gets his damage from trauma outside. The drinker gets his punches from the inside. Both kinds of trauma destroy brain clls. They don't grow back. Sedative drugs of which alcohol is one also damage brain cells.

What alcohol does to the liver "deserves only mention", as the doctor views the scene. "A person goes to the doctor and says he's worried about his liver," Dr. Gitlow said. "I don't give a damn about his liver". "If he continues to drink I can't help. It will get worse. If he stops his liver will get better".

Dr Gitlow said research on the damage done by alcohol to the brain and other body systems is "upsetting" - in a society where alcohol is used by 100 million persons including pregnant women. "I seriously wonder about the advisability of all this alcohol use," he said. "We don't have eight million alcoholics, we have more like 80 million." The official estimate - eight million - is just looking at the tip of an iceberg.

"The use of alcohol in our society is quite ill. Physicians are simply covering up." In a central nervous system, depressant alcohol diminishes function. "The brain does not function as well", he said. "If you give enough the brain will stop functioning. You will go to sleep. And given enough alcohol you will go to sleep permanently".

Dr Gitlow made these other points: the first two or three hours are what alcoholics are after. - no matter how much you drink you can't make alcohol sedate you longer than five hours. Then agitation sets in. Its duration? 12 hours.

Marks of agitation: vague disruption of personality. Diminished attention span. Being uncomfortable. Drinking in Spades: Delerium tremens.

Evidence is mounting that damage to the body by alcohol is not reversible, that it does not go away even when one stop drinking. One reason? A human has just so much central nervous system material - what he is born with. Destroy some and it doesn't grow back. As you lose them - brain cells - you go down hill from birth" Dr. Gitlow said. "Brain function going all the way into the barn (life's end) is going down".

DON says: Well that was uplifting! Scares the hell out of me and it should do the same to you. We all are living much longer now and our time on earth will only lengthen as Medicine learns more about the human body, and how to reach heights of say 100 years or more. I am so happy that I quit drinking 39 years ago, and now at age 75 I am fairly healthy and look forward to many more years. Had I continued to drink? Who knows, but I feel fairly certain I wouldn't be around to enjoy my life, wife and children, and latterly my retirement. Think about it, if you have an alcohol problem!OPROC