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DO I DRINK TO MUCH? SBS
Alcohol is by far the most widely used drug - and a dangerous one at that. So why are so many of us drinking over the recommended limits?
How much alcohol can we safely drink?
Addiction expert Dr John Marsden likes a drink. But his father was an alcoholic and although he has taken the decision to allow himself to enjoy drinking, he is obviously conscious of having inherited his father’s genes.
Combining his powerful, personal story with his specialist knowledge, Dr Marsden witnesses psychological and neurological experiments, meets cutting edge scientists and undergoes a rigorous medical analysis to discover the effects of drinking on his own health, all in search of the truth about alcohol.The investigation starts at his own institute, the Institute of Psychiatry in London. Hundreds of teenagers are being brain scanned, genetically tested and psychologically profiled providing information that will help scientists predict what turns a drinker into an addict. It will also get them closer to the holy grail of alcohol research: how much are our drinking lives determined by our genetic inheritance?
John then visits the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Maryland, USA. He meets scientists who have defined a genetic marker that connects to a type of alcoholism and investigates a different approach for a different sort of alcoholic – the damaged anxiety obsessed alcoholic. Scientists have found a way of re balancing their brain chemistry – a treatment that could be on the market in months.
John is also prepared to ask the unthinkable. What if we can drink and get away with it? Get drunk, pop a pill and be sober again? Due to one scientists’ research (
Proffessor David Nutt - Interesting Part) this is a real possibility. But what would be the consequences for society if we could avoid nature’s way of stopping us drinking?