Take care of your neurons – drink vodka with fish oil!
Scientists: fish oil will help protect the brain of alcoholics from damage
However, scientists warn, this does not mean that you can take fish oil and drink alcohol without fear of consequences for the brain.
Fish oil and omega-3 fatty acids contained in it were able to protect brain cells from excessive damage during chronic alcohol exposure, which can help alcoholics avoid mental degradation accompanying the "green snake", scientists said at the congress of the European Society for Biomedical Research of Alcoholism in Warsaw.
"Fish oil could potentially help us protect brain structure in chronic alcoholics. At least his reception won't hurt them. Drinkers should keep in mind that our discovery does not mean that you can take several capsules of fish oil along with alcohol and continue to actively consume it without fear of consequences for the brain," said Michael Collins from Loyola University in Chicago (USA).
Collins and his colleagues came to this conclusion by studying the effect of large doses of alcohol on neuronal cultures extracted from the rat brain. In one such experiment, scientists added not only alcohol to petri dishes, but also docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the main components of fish oil.
It belongs to the so-called omega-3 fatty acids and is one of the most useful components of fish oil. Thus, this compound improves blood circulation in the vessels of the brain and is critically necessary for the normal development of neurons in the embryo.
The researchers found that adding even small doses of this acid to a culture with neurons reduced the number of cell deaths by 90% and significantly reduced the intensity of inflammatory processes in the culture. These effects persisted even at very high alcohol concentrations exceeding the maximum permissible proportion of alcohol in the blood for drivers by 4 times.
This fact suggests the possibility of protecting the brain of chronic alcoholics from further degradation with the help of fish oil. However, as scientists warn, this protection is not absolute and brain cells will still die, albeit at a noticeably slower rate.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.09.2013