Posted on 09/05/2015 3:11:58 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant
Blocking D1 receptors in brain blocks alcohol cravings: study.
Scientists say a cure for alcoholism could be on the horizon thanks to the remarkable discovery of neurons in the brain that play a role in whether one glass of wine turns into a bottle. Texas A&M researchers explain the part of your brain known as the dorsomedial striatum contains neurons with spiny protrusions, each with two types of dopamine receptors. One type, called D1, encourages action but is structurally altered when large amounts of alcohol are consumed. The alteration causes the neurons to activate with less stimulation and the result is a vicious circle: Drinking alcohol causes easier activation and activation tells your brain to keep drinking. "If these neurons are excited, you will want to drink alcohol," lead author Jun Wang explains in a release. "You'll have a craving."
The study in the Journal of Neuroscience explains mice brains exposed to booze had more mature protrusions in D1 neurons compared to brains that weren't exposed to the stuff. Mice with more mature protrusions—where long-term memories are stored—downed large amounts of alcohol when given the chance. However, when the mice were given a drug to block the D1 receptor, cravings diminished. "This is the major finding," says Wang. "D1 receptors are essential for alcohol consumption" and "if we suppress this activity, we're able to suppress alcohol consumption." Wang adds his "ultimate goal is to understand how the addicted brain works … and once we do, one day, we'll be able to suppress the craving for another round of drinks and ultimately, stop the cycle of alcoholism." (Get to know history's most high-functioning alcoholics.)
Your research on this killer stress of not drinking...where is it? If you have someone in your life that has convinced you that they have to drink or they will die, you are living proof that PT Barnum was correct...
Good luck.
“If you have no sympathy for alcoholics and think it is all a joke, how about a little sympathy for the people who live in the same society as alcoholics. This discover would help them too.”
It would have no effect on me either way. I am not nor would I ever live with an alcoholic. If you mean, they could kill me by drunk driving or something, that is a choice they have made. Unless you think that not driving is so stressful for them they would die if they didn’t, therefore they have no control over it.
If you have a friend who says he can't quit, you should remind him that everyone does quit eventually.
I'm not talking about literal noise or ringing. I'm talking about thoughts you'd rather not have.
And you left out grieving over a dead child as a possible option.
Sir,you are ignorant of some key facts.
Speaking from experience I know that alcohol withdrawal is truely hell. And an alcoholic quitting cold turkey can and does kill people.
I personally have a bit of a problem with the “disease” designation but that is discussion for adifferent time.
Your analogies are specious on their face. The rapist is not physically dependant, the alcoholic most definately IS. The alcoholic does not choose to be an alcoholic, it happens often times over years and is insidious in it’s progression. Most alcoholics are not aware they are one untill hopelessly mired in the addiction.
Some, likely yourself,would say that alcoholics are “weak willed”. The opposite is true, some of the most courageous, strong willed individuals you’ll find are recovering alcoholics.
Go to an open AA meeting sometime, you might learn something.
No. Withdrawal is a detoxification process, eliminating poisons from the patient. It is neither a symptom or a side effect exclusively of alcoholism. Many people who successfully withdraw from a life of drunkeness do so without detox. One would hardly say that every alcoholic must be detoxed. Your article has nothing to do with a disease, it is a symptom of the presence of toxic levels of poison. The overdose of any poison can produce the need to be treated for withdrawal, including (but not limited to) heart and blood medications, certain foods and more. To say this is a disease would be similar to saying that the concussion you might have from football playing over time is from a dependence on sports.
Your turn.
Congrats on your sobriety. Have you tried high quality fish oil for your tinnitus? A brand like Nordic naturals or carlsons?
Withdrawal from any poison is unpleasant. It can be managed and does not require any more than medical administration of proper medication, if required.
There is no such thing as dependence on alcohol. You have a dependence on sustenance, but not alcohol.
There is nothing insidious about alcoholism. People who know you told you for many years it was a problem. You chose to ignore it.
I never mentioned a lack of willpower; that is your shield to hide behind. if you think you require willpower to quit drinking, you will lose. You require only a desire to stop drinking.
AA will teach me the only thing of value that I already know. Don’t drink, even if your ass is on fire.
Anything else?
Sorry,going to follow Mark Twains advice.... ‘Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the
difference.’
Continue to live in your ignorance and have a nice life, cheers.
“It DOESN’T hurt when addicts drink.”
Hahahahaha. Perhaps, if one lives alone, has no other meaningful work or relational interactions, never has the MANY serious medical conditions they will most certainly suffer and doesn’t kill himself or another accidentally. Every drunkard insists “they are only hurting themselves.” One of the great fallacies of the many delusions propagated by continual drunkenness. The reality is, just like smoking, drugs and all the other “electives” that you can become habituated to, it will shorten your life in some way. That seems, to me at least, to be a harm.
Hahahahahaha. Cheers.
Of course it’s harmful. But its harmful because it’s so easy and compulsive.
It’s genetic.
Good news for John Boehner.
It has never, ever, been proven to be genetic. It is a habit. It is nothing more, nothing less. It is a learned behavior. How it is learned may be a combination of nature and/or nurture, but even that opens a whole different conversation. But Genetic? No. Like any other habitual behavior, is it something you could easily stop doing for a year? No? It’s a habit. Prove it isn’t more than that by stopping and see if there is a change.
Back to the topic.
There are a few drugs that D1 Dopamine Receptor Antagonists. Some of the drugs are listed here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor_D1#Antagonists
Thank you.
As a reformed functional alcoholic (sometimes) yes, thank you. The noise being that narrator voice spouting all sorts of thinga. The noise being a buzzing sound. The noise being my own cognitive mind thinking, obsessing on something, or many things.
I drank because, sometimespecially it was the only way to shut off my brain.
I’ve had way too much to drink tonight at Mr. GG2’s birthday bash and you are getting on my last nerve density. :-)
Correct. That’s what I meant. Just turn it off and give me peace.
I hope you never have to experience this yourself nor experience it with a close friend on a more and more frequently occurring basis until finally on their last “withdrawl” you hold there hands while they die.
A true alcoholic is an addict and cannot function without alcohol in their system. Eventually, even a short period of time without alcohol continuously being ingested will induce DT’s and the very real possibility of death. Its far more complex than the simplistic notion of detoxification. A true alcoholic is no-longer drinking to get high; He's drinking to avoid severe discomfort which the alcoholic knows will eventually kill him.
Chronic intake of alcohol affects several neurotransmitter systems in the brain. These effects include (1) increased release of endogenous opiates; (2) activation of the inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid-A (GABA-A) receptor producing increased GABA inhibition, with a resultant influx of chloride ions; (3) up-regulation of the postsynaptic N -methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type of glutamate receptor, which mediates the postsynaptic excitatory effects of glutamate; and (4) interactions with serotonin and dopamine receptors.
During withdrawal from alcohol, the loss of GABA-A receptor stimulation causes a reduction in chloride flux and is associated with tremors, diaphoresis, tachycardia, anxiety, and seizures. In addition, the lack of inhibition of the NMDA receptors may lead to seizures and delirium. Excessive nervous system excitability during periods of abstinence from alcohol is related to the effect of alcohol on the number and function of brain receptors.
I will admit that the damage of drinking for most people is at first self induced and can be stopped merely by never taking another drink. There is a point however that an individual reaches - a line crossed so to speak - that takes one from free will into the world of addiction. It is very difficult and can be deadly to cross back over the line and back in to a life of sobriety. One drink can and most likely will return an individual back to addiction in a very short period of time. I've seen it in my life dozens of times.
Alcohol is one of the few drugs in which the withdrawal process itself can cause death and I'm not talking about suicide! The actual DT withdrawals can kill. No one has ever died from withdrawal or detoxification from heroin unless it was self inflicted. The same cannot be said for alcohol. The alcholic reaches the point where they are physically more sick without alcohol than with alcohol and eventually sick either way. The later is often the point of no return. A person can quit drinking for years and one drink will rapidly ( ie within a matter of weeks ) take a person back to the level of disease they had when the quit.
Here is a simplistic example. Hepatitus C for the most part is also entirely self induced and can be avoided buy limiting sexual partners and not sharing needles. But once you got Hep C you got it. You might share needles 100 times or boink 100 women. But once you've got it; you've got and you've got it for life. You might get Hep C from your first tryst or your next; You might get it from your first fix or your next. But once you got it; Game over! Alcoholism is literally a game of Russian roulette and no one knows whether they are genetically predisposed to it or when they've self induced it from abuse for the most part until it's to late.
You can argue the semantics of the word “desease” and "detox" all day long. Until you've been in the trenches with people who suffer from it - your full of sh#$. If you have witnessed the process and still don't believe it then drink up! You can experience it for yourself; Call me when you need someone to hold your hand. I was so blessed and so fortunate; I crossed the line of no return only once and returned. My experience was easy compared to most.
Years ago I buried a friend who I began drinking with in 1974. All of us new that there was something different about him. He was an alcoholic from his first drink to his last and there was nothing anyone could do to stop its progress. Even He knew!. He was an alcoholic from a metabolic perspective before he had his first drink of ethanol!His brain was wired differently than most people and every drink rewired it in destructive ways!
The only way I can describe it is that he metabolised alcohol differently than most people and became addicted to it almost from his first drink and remained addicted to it until his last. He was physiologically incapable of metabolising alcohol like most normal people. There are numerous ethnic groups for which alcohol consumption is a very bad idea. We scattered my friends ashes on the Chesapeake Bay. It was his favourite place in the world.
I post this because it's truly a matter of life and death. Arguing over words like disease, withdrawal, detox, lack of will power, lack of character etc. is a waste of time. There is one and only one guaranteed cure to however you want to characterize alcoholism and that is to never take another drink! Period.
Arguments over semantics have killed to many of my friends in a life or death matter where semantics become irrelevant!
Signed Been there done that! I would not wish what I've experienced or witnessed upon my worst enemy.
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