Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at 12:27 AM A glass of red wine, we've been told it's good for us. Studies say it may reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease. But that was yesterday. Today, a new study out by the American Heart Association says moderate drinking does not reduce the risk of stroke and it may even cause the brain to shrink. Joining us now from Los Angeles is addiction expert Dr. Drew Pinsky. Welcome aboard, Doctor. DR. DREW PINSKY, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Thank you, Paula. ZAHN: All right, you got to help me with this one. We have seen study after study over the last year essentially telling us that moderate drinking is good for us, that it can possibly protect us against diabetes, heart disease, stroke, even dementia. Do you buy this new research? (CROSSTALK) PINSKY: Oh, this new -- this is a fantastic study. And, in my field, it's sort of a no-duh. We've known forever that alcohol is a poison and it damages brain tissue. And here now is a study that shows, in a dose-related fashion, that the more you drink, the more damage we see to the brain via brain shrinkage. The surprising thing of this study is, we've always thought that it did protect against stroke. That was not shown to be the case in this study. The fact, though, remains alcohol probably does protect against things like heart disease. But just because it has an effect on the vascular system, just because it reduces the risk of heart disease doesn't mean it's healthy. You understand that these studies have been very, very specific. They've been asking a specific question, does it reduce the risk of heart attack, as an end point, not, does it make people healthier. And those of us in the addiction medicine field have really had problems with these studies, because they've sort of fueled the denial of moderate drinkers. (CROSSTALK) PINSKY: Go ahead, Paula. I'm sorry. ZAHN: I was just going to ask you, are you basically telling us, then, as we look at the study, that we should pick the organ we want to protect the most, that, in fact, moderate drinking might be good for the heat, but terrible for our brain? PINSKY: That's an interesting way of looking at it. And, really, it should be up to us in clinical science to decide how to develop that balance, how to protect the heart on one hand and not give you so much that we're going to cause brain shrinkage. Right now, we don't know what that point is. This study, as I said, is remarkable in that it showed, with each drink per week, your brain shrinks more. It's an incredible study and a well-executed study. And it's something people need to take to heart. Now, whether or not, at what point people get cognitive problems, thinking problems -- because alcohol does affect the frontal lobes prominently. So for a middle- aged person, it could really affect their functioning. ZAHN: So what's the bottom line here? Give up that glass of wine a couple of week? PINSKY: I certainly -- boy, I look at that data and I think two to four glasses of wine a week and you are potentially taking a risk with your brain. And keep this in mind. Alcohol is one of the rare -- or the few drugs of addiction and abuse that is actually a poison. It's a poison to human tissue. It's well-known to destroy human brains. Heroin causes horrible addiction. It doesn't hurt the brain so much. We've got to know that about -- we have to send that message out about alcohol, so when people sort of feel sort of glib that they can have their two to six to eight glasses of wine a week because it's good for their heart, it doesn't mean it's healthy. ZAHN: So I assume that you're picking the brain tonight over the heart, then. PINSKY: I pick the brain. If you're asking me to make a choice, I will pick the brain tonight, yes, I will. ZAHN: Of course, you would have to do that. Dr. Drew Pinsky, thanks for helping us cut through some of this often conflicting information. PINSKY: My pleasure.
—Boris Grushenko | 
