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Alcohol

A new study conducted by emergency room doctors indicate that alcohol could actually have some beneficial effects following head trauma. After reviewing over 38,000 moderate-to-severe head trauma patients, doctors concluded that people appear less likely to die following brain trauma if they had alcohol in their bloodstream.

This study conducted by Dr Ali Salim and his colleagues from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is considered as the most comprehensive study of the effects of alcohol on brain injury survival. According to their findings:

the right dose of alcohol, however, stops the cascade of swelling, inflammation and further destruction of brain cells, known as secondary brain injury…The finding of reduced mortality in traumatic brain injury patients with pre-injury ethanol raises the intriguing possibility that administering ethanol to patients with brain injuries may improve outcome.
BBC

Now, before you go start yelling for alcohol following an accident or forcefeeding it to people, it is important to note that the amount of alcohol consumed appears to be important - too little and there is no effect, too much and the beneficial effects are lost. In the future, EMT’s might administer alcohol to patients following head injureies, rather fascinating don’t you think?