Traumatic Brain Injury: Stopping Drinking Reverses Alcohol's Damage to Brain

Alcoholism destroys lives, marriages, homes, careers, and also destroys brainpower. Long-term alcoholism has a way of shrinking the brain and several of its components, including the hippocampus, the brain's center of memory and learning. Even regular heavy drinking can hurt the brain's ability in cognitive tasks. However, a new study in the journal Brain outlines the ability of the brain to regenerate itself and regain function after its owner stops drinking excessively.

Kicking habit may reverse alcohol's damage to brain

A team of European researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to look at the brains of 15 alcohol-dependent and 10 healthy patients and then tracked the volume of two key brain chemicals can be used to measure cell health and activity. The alcoholics then began a path of sobriety. In less than two months without alcohol consumption, the brain volume of the alcoholic subjects increased by, on average, 1.85%. Levels of other chemicals in the brain that also indicate proper brain cell function also went up by 10%. ''Abstinence pays off and enables the brain to regain some substance and perform better,'' said Dr. Andreas Bartsch of the University of Wurzburg in Germany. ''The adult human brain, and particularly its white matter, seems to possess genuine capabilities for regrowth,'' he said.