Heavy boozing can lead to brain damaging ‘walnut effect’
By ANITuesday, October 13, 2009
MELBOURNE - Doctors have warned heavy drinkers against alcohol abuse that can lead to the “pickled walnut” effect.
Dr Mark Daglish, Director of Addiction Psychiatry at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH), explained excessive alcohol could lead to serious brain damage and may cause memory deficits.
“There are studies going back a long way looking at post-mortem effects of alcohol on the brain, we can see brain atrophy and we can see a particular type of damage associated with vitamin deficiency,” News.com.au quoted Dr Daglish as saying.
“We also know about alcohol-related dementia where you get globalised atrophy of the brain following usually years of chronic alcohol misuse.
“The classic MRI pictures … show a shrunken brain with extra fluid about it that we generally nickname the ‘pickled walnut’ because of what it looks like,” the medic added. (ANI)
