Comments on: Treating Brain Injuries With Booze?

By: peg

peg — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:32:31 +0000

I agree with Stew’s friend that alcohol tends to make you more relaxed and less likely to suffer more serious injury.

By: Stew

Stew — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:28:29 +0000

I have a friend who was an EMT. Anecdotaly, he said that people who were drunk had less physical injuries in car accidents and the like. He surmised, that drunk people are totally relaxed at the time of impact and therefor have less injuries than people who get scared and tense up. Maybe this also has an effect on brain injuries.

By: graham

graham — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:18:51 +0000

Also, the 38% refers to the percentile of intoxicated persons, out of the 38,000 patients, with moderate to severe brain injuries.

By: graham

graham — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:14:00 +0000

Old Geezer…the 40% refers to “fatal” accidents cuased by drivers with alcohol in their system.

There is no data above to support that the fatalities were either sober or intoxicated persons.

By: Old Geezer

Old Geezer — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:39:30 +0000

Note that nearly 40% of accidents involve alcohol while 38% of those who made it to the hospital had alcohol in their bloodstreams. This suggests that more people with alcohol died before reaching the hospital. Maybe that’s why fewer died once they got there. Coincidence does not equal causation.

By: tea

tea — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:17:31 +0000

Uisge-beatha is the root word in Scots Gaelic, and if you hear it properly pronounced you can juuuust about hear the word “whisky” in “ooshkie bayha.” Trust me on this, it makes sense if a Scottish person says it.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:40:44 +0000

Or it could just be that God watches out for drunks and children…

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:37:43 +0000

Or it might just be that the boozy patients are younger (by about 6.5 years) and more likely to heal from any injury.

By: VM

VM — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:29:11 +0000

I always understood that alcohol is a vasodilator — that’s the reason why people can feel warmer and have flushed cheeks from drinking. So why should it be so surprising there might occasionally be medical benefits? Especially for head trauma where flow of blood (and the oxygen it carries) is so vitally important?