I used to be an alcoholic!

Dear Friends: Your humble reporter used to be an alcoholic...... and there were times when I had it bad. (Right now I'm just a person who doesn't drink, but after all this time if I did drink it would be alcoholically....... and I would be an alcoholic again!)

Some people suggested AA but I found out that it was just a cult much like Scientology, or Jehova's Witnesses, so I had to go through many years of aversion therapy (that's where I drank until it made me sick) until I got to the point of just not wanting to drink anymore!

NOW, new research published today in Science may offer insights into why some humans who drink alcohol develop an addiction whereas most do not. (12.5% or about one in eight.)

After caffeine, alcohol is the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in the world. For the majority of people the occasional happy hour beer or Bloody Mary brunch is where it stops. Yet we all know that others will drink compulsively, despite whatever consequence or darkness it brings.

In collaboration with co-author and University of Texas at Austin research scientist Dayne Mayfield, Dan Heilig’s team found that in brain samples from deceased humans who had suffered from alcohol addiction, GAT-3 levels were markedly lower in the amygdala—generally considered the brain’s emotional center. 

The new research confirms earlier work showing this is true for rats; but it takes things a step further and supports a study design that could help scientists better understand addiction biology, and possibly develop more effective therapies for human addictive behaviors.

They believe their findings and study design could be steps toward developing an effective pharmaceutical therapy for alcohol addiction, a kind of treatment that has eluded researchers for years.

Heilig and his team believe they have already identified a promising addiction treatment based on their latest work, and have teamed up with a pharmaceutical company in hopes of soon testing the compound in humans. The drug suppresses the release of GABA and thus could restore levels of the neurotransmitter to normal in people with a dangerous taste for alcohol.

 With any luck, one of civilization’s oldest vices might soon loosen its grip.

 

 Meanwhile: Since caffeine is the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in the world, even more than alcohol, in a new study scientists in Germany report they were able to modify a common age-related defect in the hearts of mice with doses of caffeine equivalent to four to five cups of coffee a day for a human.

The paper—the latest addition to a growing body of research that supports the health benefits of drinking coffee—describes how the molecular action of caffeine appears to enhance the function of heart cells and protect them from damage.

It remains to be seen whether these findings will ultimately have any bearing on humans, but Joachim Altschmied of Heinrich Heine-University in Düesseldorf, who led the study with his colleague Judith Haendeler, says “the old idea that you shouldn’t drink coffee if you have heart problems is clearly not the case anymore.”

Previous research had suggested as much. For example, a 2017 report in the Annual Review of Nutrition, which analyzed the results of more than 100 coffee and caffeine studies, found coffee was associated with a probable decreased risk of cardiovascular disease—as well as type 2 diabetes and several kinds of cancer. The new paper, published Thursday in PLOS Biology, identifies a specific cellular mechanism by which coffee consumption may improve heart health.

Yup, first it's good for ya, then it's bad for ya, then it's good for ya again! 

The way I see it anyway!

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