For Some Issues, Gender Matters When You’re Drinking

Did you know that research has shown that men and women metabolize alcohol differently, according to data provided by the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA)? Neuropsychologist Marlene Oscar Berman, a School of Medicine professor, studies the effects of long-term chronic alcoholism on the brain. The information she is gathering is waking up the world of neuroscience to the differences between men and women with regard to alcoholism, including that the number of women becoming alcoholic is growing. Some of her more important discoveries include: Women process alcohol differently than men overall, not just in the central nervous system. Because women tend to be smaller than men, they also have lower water volume and a higher peak blood alcohol content. Basically, it takes less alcohol for women to become impaired. Women are more likely than men to develop cirrhosis of the liver after few years of drinking. “When you’ve been drinking heavily for a long time, you change the whole chemistry and structure of your brain,” says Berman, who has studied brain damage in animals and humans for about four decades. This is true of both men and women. The National Institute of Alcohol of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) reports that there are about 20 million alcoholics in the United States. According to their estimates, about 50% suffer some kind of cognitive impairment. About 2 million suffer permanent impairments that require a lifetime of custodial car...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Richard Taite Source Type: blogs