{"id":296360,"date":"2017-02-24T17:50:01","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T16:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/brain-damage-on-the-rise-among-well-off-middle-age-drinkers\/"},"modified":"2017-02-24T17:50:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T16:50:01","slug":"brain-damage-on-the-rise-among-well-off-middle-age-drinkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/brain-damage-on-the-rise-among-well-off-middle-age-drinkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain damage on the rise among well-off, middle-age drinkers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 24 Feb, 2017 15:47<\/time><\/p>\n<p>        Brain damage among drinkers aged 50 and above has trebled in the last ten years, with experts fearing the issue is under-reported in the middle classes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text  js-mediator-article\">\n<p>Newly released figure show that 3,627 drinkers over the age of 50 were admitted to hospital with alcohol-related brain damage in 2015 compared with 994 in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Related symptoms include memory loss, loss of balance, and recalling events that didn\u2019t happen. It is feared that many middle-class drinkers are suffering some degree of brain damage and not understanding how seriously their daily wine intake can affect them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/368565-alcoholism-genetic-pill-science\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2016.11\/thumbnail\/583d71b1c46188d0618b463d.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Eddie Keogh\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201c<em>In services around the country, people are seeing [a level of] drinkers they would not have seen five or ten years ago,<\/em>\u201d consultant psychiatrist Tony Rao told the Times on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>He said social class may be a key issue because, \u201c<em>if an educated woman turns up at a GP surgery or A&amp;E with a fall, no one asks about her alcohol intake.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A genome study of 105,000 people carried out by researchers from King\u2019s College London and Imperial College London appeared to show that having a taste for drink might be genetic.<\/p>\n<p>They found the hormone FGF21, which is secreted by the liver, plays a crucial role in setting a person\u2019s drinking limits.<\/p>\n<p>The study highlighted the \u201c<em>pathway<\/em>\u201d between the hormone and a gene in the brain called beta-Klotho. In about 40 percent of participants, a particular beta-Klotho variant was associated with reduced alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n<p>Further investigation found that those lacking the beta-Klotho gene show a significant increase in alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists say the discovery will lead to new treatments for people unable to control their drinking, as it may be possible to replicate the gene\u2019s function, researchers say.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Gunter Schumann, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King\u2019s College London, told the Sun: \u201c<em>Our study reveals a previously unrecognized liver-brain pathway which regulates alcohol consumption in humans, and which could one day be targeted therapeutically to suppress consumption in problem drinkers.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/378507-alcohol-brain-damage-drinking\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published time: 24 Feb, 2017 15:47 Brain damage among drinkers aged 50 and above has trebled in the last ten years, with experts fearing the issue is under-reported in the middle classes. Newly released figure show that 3,627 drinkers over the age of 50 were admitted to hospital with alcohol-related brain damage in 2015 compared [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}