A team of international researcher said that excessive drinking can damage brain cells but the brain can repair some of the harm.But they warned alcoholics should get sober as quickly as possible because the longer they contribute to drink heavily, the less likely their brains will be able to regenerate. Scintists from Germany , Britain , Switzerland and Italy uncovered the brain’s regenrative ability by measuring the volume , form and function of the brains of 15 alcoholic men and women before and after they stopped drinking to see how much they changed over seven weeks. Using sophisticated scanning techniques they showed that after 38 days without a drink the brain volume of the patients increased by an average of heavly 2%. The volunteers also performed better in concentration and attention test and had higher levels of chemicals linked to brain cell function. The human brain , and particularly its white matter, seems to possess genuine capabilities for regrowth-researchers said. source:REUTERS and THE TIMES OF INDIA (19dec2006)

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