Thread: Teens' brains may pay price for drinking

[size=18px]Teens' brains may pay price for drinking[/size]

Alarming evidence indicates drinking alcohol at a young age causes neurological damage and opens a door for alcoholism.

Katy Butler, New York Times
Last update: July 03, 2006 – 8:10 PM

Teenagers have been drinking alcohol for centuries. In pre-Revolutionary America, young apprentices were handed buckets of ale. In the 1890s, at age 15, writer Jack London regularly drank grown sailors under the table.

For almost as long, concerned adults have tried to limit teenage alcohol consumption.

But what was once a social and moral debate may soon become a neurobiological one.

The costs of early heavy drinking, experts say, appear to extend far beyond the time away from doing homework, dating, acquiring social skills and the related tasks of growing up.

Mounting research suggests that alcohol causes more damage to the developing brains of teenagers than was previously thought, injuring them significantly more than it does adult brains. The findings, though preliminary, have demolished the assumption that people can drink heavily for years before causing themselves significant neurological injury. And the research even suggests that early heavy drinking may undermine the precise neurological capacities needed to protect a person from alcoholism.

The findings may help explain why people who begin drinking at an early age face enormous risks of becoming alcoholics. According to the results of a national survey of 43,093 adults, published on Monday in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 47 percent of those who begin drinking alcohol before age 14 become alcohol dependent at some time in their lives, compared with 9 percent of those who wait at least until age 21. The correlation holds even when genetic risks for alcoholism are taken into account.

The most alarming evidence of physical damage comes from federally financed laboratory experiments on the brains of adolescent rats subjected to binge doses of alcohol.

"There is no doubt about it now: There are long-term cognitive consequences to excessive drinking of alcohol in adolescence," said Aaron White, an assistant professor at Duke University and co-author of a recent study of college drinking.

"We definitely didn't know five or 10 years ago that alcohol affected the teen brain differently," White said. "Now there's a sense of urgency. It's the same place we were in when everyone realized what a bad thing it was for pregnant women to drink alcohol."

Teens' brains may pay price for drinking

That would explain a lot on my end.

**Twitch twitch**

"ultravikingfan" wrote:

That would explain a lot on my end.

**Twitch twitch**

:laughing3: :sign5:

"ultravikingfan" wrote:

That would explain a lot on my end.

**Twitch twitch**

I don't normally post articles like this, but if it gets thru & sinks into just one teenagers head & sticks, it's well worth the thread space. :wink:

"singersp" wrote:

"ultravikingfan" wrote:

That would explain a lot on my end.

**Twitch twitch**

I don't normally post articles like this, but if it gets thru & sinks into just one teenagers head & sticks, it's well worth the thread space. :wink:

Good luck singer! I've tried to talk sense into my friends' heads for years and it's yet to sink in.

Uh Oh :shock:

Singer:
Great post! And on this forum you are reaching a lot of young people at that critical age!

"COJOMAY" wrote:

Singer:
Great post! And on this forum you are reaching a lot of young people at that critical age!

I'd hate to think where I'd be if I had started drinking in my early teens.

It was bad enough for me drinking heavily in my 30's & the battle I had fighting it.

Today I can honestly say I've been to hell & back.

It wasn't a pleasant experience, but I'm glad I made it.

Not everyone does.

It's been 6+ years now since I've taken a drink & rest assured, I won't be taking another one.

If anyone ever has any questions feel free to PM me. My inbox is alway open.

good post. When your young your brains not mature enough to do a lot of stuff. let alone drinking.

i definatly am a drinker, probably do it a little too often, but, sadly the one thing that caught my eye in this article

"The costs of early heavy drinking, experts say, appear to extend far beyond the time away from doing homework, dating, acquiring social skills and the related tasks of growing up."

let's just say, i dont think theres anything youre near as social as when you're drinking ^^

but yea, startin when you're like 13-15 and doing it heavily and continueing to do it.. that can mess you up good