A fairly extensive study involving 38,000 cases over a period of five years suggests that having alcohol in the blood stream may increase the chances of survival in accidents involving severe brain trauma.
“This study really brings up more questions than it answers,” says coauthor Ali Salim, M.D., the program director of the General Surgery Residency Educational Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles. “It’s a bad thing to say alcohol is good, especially since it’s responsible for so many of these injuries. But our study suggests there may be some survival advantage for people with elevated [blood alcohol] levels.” ~ CNN.com
There’s probably two guys sitting at a bar at this very moment discussing this story praising the merits of alcohol, and both will drive home smug and content that their brain is safe. Drinker’s beware though, survival rates may be higher but so are complications and recovery – in addition, it would be a pretty safe bet that alcohol was a contributing factor in most of those brain injuries where it was of “help”.
Scientists have several theories on this effect of alcohol, but I also have one they didn’t address. Ever notice how the drunk in an accident seems to be the one that survives? My thought is that they don’t go through the stress and trauma that sober people do in severe accidents avoiding both emotional and medical shock… they do not have fear or a sense of their own mortality. They are simply too drunk to die.
