A little alcohol kickstarts your brain-cleaning process.
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Alcohol is good for you
Before you go hitting the booze in the name of a clean brain, slow your roll.
It’s true: a 2018 study has proven that alcohol has benefits to brain health by promoting the removal of waste products.
A little more about brain cleaning
The glymphatic system is the brain’s cleaning process. It works by using cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) to powerwash brain tissue and remove waste.
What kind of waste?
Things considered rubbish, cranially speaking, include the proteins beta amyloid and tau, which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
In last year’s study, mice that hit the bottle hard were compared to a control group of teetotal mice over a sustained period of time.
What they found
The tipsy mice had high levels of a molecular marker for inflammation, especially in astrocyte cells, which are key regulators of the glymphatic system. These mice also demonstrated impairment of cognitive ability and motor skills (makes sense).
Mice with moderate alcohol exposure had less brain inflammation and a more efficient glymphatic system compared to the control group with no alcohol exposure. Both of these groups had identical cognitive and motor tests.
Cool! But, I'm not a mouse
Totally get it. The reason this info is relevant to you is because studies on mice often prove the case for human trials to explore the concept further. Mice are used because their brain tissue is the most similar to ours, so there’s a higher chance that what we learn from mice will apply to humans as well. There's only one way to find out...
So go on and enjoy a moderate 2.5 drinks per day in the name of brain health! And remember #drinkresponsibly.
FOR THE NERDY: Fancy a tipple? [source: neurosciencenews.com]