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More and more health benefits of coffee are being discovered, and now a new study published in the research journal Translational Psychiatry has discovered a previously unknown effect of this popular beverage.

That is, coffee can help counteract the harmful effects of alcohol on the brain and potentially help with alcohol withdrawal by interacting with the production of the brain chemical dopamine, according to medical news site Medical Express.

Science has just discovered a previously unknown effect of coffee.

Dopamine is a chemical messenger that is naturally released from nerve cells in the brain and produces a variety of effects. One of its functions is to create a pleasant feeling after you do something enjoyable, making you want to do it again, and this is why dopamine plays a role in addiction, according to health news site HealthDirect .

Dopamine acts on areas of the brain that give you feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation. Sometimes you want to feel more of this dopamine “reward,” which is how dopamine becomes addictive.

Too much dopamine causes aggression and difficulty controlling impulses. A dopamine imbalance also leads to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to HealthDirect.

In this latest study, scientists from Italy and the US took a closer look at the effects of coffee on this dopamine.

Coffee may help counteract the harmful effects of alcohol on the brain.

In experiments with mice, the authors found that caffeine inhibits the addictive dopamine pathway – the pathway that makes alcoholics want to drink more.

Specifically, caffeine has the ability to block the conversion of alcohol into salsolinol, an intermediate that triggers the release of dopamine. This makes drinking less enjoyable and reduces the desire to continue drinking.

Notably, not only with alcohol, but also with other addictive substances - such as morphine, caffeine also has this inhibitory effect.

Study author Dr. Riccardo Maccioni, a neuroscientist at the Scripps Research Institute (USA), said: "It is encouraging that one of the few drugs for alcohol addiction, OUD, also prevents the harmful effects of alcohol by interfering with the dopamine pathway. This raises hope for using caffeine as a potential treatment for alcohol addiction . Scientists said that in the near future, clinical trials on humans will be conducted, according to Medical Express .

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cac-nha-khoa-hoc-lai-phat-hien-them-mot-loi-ich-tiem-nang-cua-ca-phe-185241207194522309.htm