Pot may protect brain from booze

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Brain Scans Show Less Damage

Marijuana may protect the brain from some of the damage caused by binge drinking, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego performed brain scans on 16- to 19-year-olds in three groups: binge drinkers, binge drinkers who also smoke pot, and those with very little drug or drinking experience.

Binge drinkers showed damage in their white matter. But those who drink and smoke showed more damage than the control group in only three of eight areas of the brain. In seven of the areas, their brains were in better shape than the binge drinkers.

Researchers said in a news release from the Marijuana Project that the result was unexpected.

They said it could be that marijuana somehow stops alcohol from damaging brain cells.

The study was published online by the Journal for Neurotoxicology and Teratology.

 

[BrainEater]

lol that's so cool :weedman: 8) :weedman:

 

[Psyolopher]

That is very interesting.
Could you give me a source? So I could study this matter into more details?

 

[Affirmatory]

Although I don't drink much anymore, this is very good news for my brain. :)

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

That is very interesting.
Could you give me a source? So I could study this matter into more details?

Oops, I forgot, though the url to the Journal didn't work yesterday. It does now:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=b50be256228e7b4d2a2e1b6fa12b5063

And the article itself:

http://www.clickorlando.com/health/20597907/detail.html

From the Journal:

White matter integrity in adolescents with histories of marijuana use and binge drinking

Abstract

Structural brain abnormalities have been observed in adolescents with alcohol use disorders but less is known about neuropathological brain characteristics of teens with sub-diagnostic binge drinking or the common pattern of binge drinking combined with marijuana use. The goal of this study was to examine white matter integrity in adolescents with histories of binge drinking and marijuana use.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was conducted with 42 adolescents (ages 16–19) classified as controls, binge drinkers, or binge drinkers who are also heavy marijuana users. Tract based spatial analysis identified shared fiber structure across individuals and facilitated voxelwise comparisons of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) between groups.

Significant between group differences were found in FA in eight white matter regions (ps ? .016) between the binge drink-only group and controls, including superior corona radiata, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and superior longitudinal fasciculus. Interestingly, in 4 of these same regions, binge drinkers who are also heavy marijuana users had higher FA than binge drinkers who did not use marijuana (ps < .05). MD did not differ between groups.

Findings are largely consistent with research suggesting less neuropathology in adolescents without histories of substance use. However, binge drinkers who also use marijuana did not show as consistent a divergence from non-users as did the binge drink-only group. Detection of white matter alterations may have implications in identifying early cognitive dysfunction in substance using adolescents.

 

[ophiuchus]

as beautifully as this is presented, please consider that the study was done with only 42 people. think of 42 of your friends, and consider how radically different all of them are from each other, their habits, everything, then think of them as one fraction of humanity in the entire world. sure, the've found some interesting data, but i dont think this is a convincing study at all.dont get me wrong, i greatly appreciate what they are trying to do... they need more people. i wont believe it until i see at least 100 people in the study, and even then thats really not shit. statistics can lie from both sides guys, look objectively

 

[BrainEater]

+1

altho i must say that smoking pot has led me to drinking less and less alcohol in general too...
i just prefer being stoned over being drunk... as well as the feeling on the next day when "done too much" ;D

 

[trick]

Well when ever i binge drink and smoke weed, i drink less than i would if i diddnt smoke weed. Im thinking that along with what adrianhaffner said, and diffrences in the ammount of alcohol consumed, there isnt much diffrence. But im no researcher, and 3 to 7 sounds like good numbers to me.

Regaurdless if this is true, thats good news for my weekends :P

 

[Mescaline]

Here's the complete journal article for who is interested.

and diffrences in the ammount of alcohol consumed

They controlled for the amount of binge drinking :D
And although the sample size is a bit low, it's not dramatic. (approx. 15% margin of error).

 

[trick]

Sounds pretty legit then. You cant smudge those numbers. It sounds pretty true to me.

 

[ophiuchus]

40 something people isn't shit. personally, i find this (topic) to be true, since i know marijuana to be a medicine already, but you wont convince anybody (important) with these numbers, it's like they did it just to say that they did it. it's a joke... "get serious or dont waste your time". my advice for whoever oversaw this study. not saying they didn't do it well, but they didn't do it right. for the people that they're gonna need to impress anyways..

 

[trick]

well the conclusions of this study dosent really change anything, in my opinion its just interesting info. and i think thats ALL it is.

 

[Mescaline]

these studies are mostly done to 'explore' the area, not to make some big point about specific positive effects.
In that sense they showed the 'bigger scientific public' that there is (scientific) reason to believe that cannabis can have a positive effect on *whatever*. You cannot expect researchers to do studies involving hundreds of people without them having any scientifically(!) backed-up cause to do so... this is WAY to expensive (especially for this area of research).
So I am glad they did this study, and yes it's not going to change anything directly, but if these kind of studies pile up, SOME DAY, SOME researchers will actually be able to do bigger studies.

 

[Esie]

hello,..''
Sounds pretty legit then. You cant smudge those numbers. It sounds pretty true to me.
thanks a lot,..



cheers,
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