Alcohol and drugs rewire your brain by changing how your genes work

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21 points·oriettaxx··10 comments

Doesn't ingesting lactose cause expression of the lactase encoding gene? The genes are the state machine of our cell lineage, changing their work is expected in response to stimuli.

I keep hearing about drugs rewiring the brain ("Adderal causes changes in brain in long-term use") which is always taken as a bad thing, but shouldn't medicinal drugs that improve mental function be exactly expected to do that?

Seeing this trend makes me have doubts as to where is medical science headed.

Yes, a better headline would be something like: Behaviors, drugs, and even foods rewire your brain via the epigenome

But modern science is all about what's in vogue and securing funding. This study was funded by the national institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism and the institute on drug abuse, so we all know what conclusion must be found.

The spice must flow.

> I keep hearing about drugs rewiring the brain ("Adderal causes changes in brain in long-term use") which is always taken as a bad thing, but shouldn't medicinal drugs that improve mental function be exactly expected to do that?

I can't recall right now which paper it was what described this. But this indeed seems to be the case and towards a state which is the goal for the patient in the first place.

Surely most things do then

No way

Epigenetics is just Lysenkoism dressed up for modern sensibilities.

.... No, no it's not.

In substance no. In spirit absolutely.

No, not even in spirit. Epigenetics is not an 'alternative' to evolution, but rather a complement.

Isn't epigenetics necessary for cell specialisation?

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