Science & The Spirit
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BRAIN DRAIN
Health Helps Part 13
By Dane and Vicki Griffin
Can you guess what is the
number one drug problem in North America?
If you answered “alcohol,” you’d be right! Just look at
the statistics:
• Alcohol is at least partly responsible for 100,000 deaths
each year!
• More than 7% of adults have a drinking problem, and nearly
half of all adults have at least one alcoholic in the family.
• Nearly 50% of all highway accidents involve alcohol.
• Nearly 50% of all violence at home and on the job is related
to alcohol.
• Alcohol plays a part in half of all murders, rapes, and
child abuse cases; one-third of all suicides; and nearly
three-quarters of all assaults and robberies.
Do you think your brain is too large? Would you like a
smaller size? Try alcohol. When Dr. Cyril Courville, a
neurologist, studied 40,000 brain specimens, he discovered that
the most common cause for brain atrophy1 was alcohol.
Do you feel you are too intelligent? Too coordinated?
Alcohol can come to the rescue again! Many people don’t
realize that alcohol causes the red blood cells to cluster and
block the capillaries. The result? Blood flow is reduced to the
brain and muscles, leaving you less coordinated, and less able
to think clearly. Eventually, the muscles and brain actually
grow smaller.
But isn’t wine drinking good for the heart? Don’t be
too sure. A few years ago, a study seemed to show that French
men who drank two to three glasses of wine a day had less heart
disease. What no one mentioned was that these same men had three
times as much esophageal cancer, and were twice as likely to die
of stomach cancer or liver disease. And come to find out, it
appears that the lowered heart disease was due to their diet—not
their glasses of wine!
Alcohol is bad for nearly every part of the body. Look
what even a small amount each day can do!
• It can cause cirrhosis of the liver.
• It weakens the immune system.
• It robs the body of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin
C, vitamin E, and selenium.
• It increases blood pressure.
• It irritates the stomach, slows digestion, and causes ulcers
and bleeding.
• It increases the chance of cancer of the mouth, pharynx,
larynx, esophagus, stomach, large bowel, pancreas, thyroid, and
breast.
Good wine! The Bible says, “the new wine is found in
the cluster, . . . destroy it not; for a blessing is in it”
(Isaiah 65:8). Today, we know this is true! Pure, unfermented
grape juice contains resveratrol, which can actually help lower
cholesterol. Grape juice is also rich in antioxidants, which
fight cancer. It even soothes and heals problems with the
stomach.
Sound counsel
The Bible has strong words for anyone who thinks he can get away
with drinking alcohol: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is
raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. . . . At
the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder”
(Proverbs 20:1; 23:32).
William Shakespeare may have been thinking of these verses when
he summed it up so nicely: “Oh, that men should put an enemy
in their mouths, to steal away their brains!”
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1. Shrinking and/or weakening.
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