Is excessive alcohol consumption in women linked to estrogen? This is what a study published in the journal suggests Nature communications December 30.
Concretely, the presence in large quantities of estrogen, hormone produced by the ovaries and linked to the menstrual cycle, would push women consumed more alcohol especially within 30 minutes of the first sip.
Already in 2021, Dr. Kristen Pleil, associate professor in pharmacology in Weill Cornell Medical (New York), and his team had shown that a subgroup of neurons in a region of the brain called core of the Terminal Strie (BNST) was more excitable in mice women than in males, an activity increased correlated with excessive alcohol consumption.
Higher alcohol consumption during estrogen peaks
To explain this mechanism, Weill Cornell Medecine’s researchers have monitored hormone levels throughout the cycle (estral cycle of 4 to 5 days) in female mice. Why follow this track?
“Estrogens have so powerful effects on many behaviors, especially in females”, Dr. Pleil said in a statement. “It is therefore logical that he also modulates alcohol consumption”.
Alcohol was thus given to the female mice: the researchers discovered that the more they had a high rate of estrogen, the more alcohol they drank. And this “bulimia” was actually correlated with an increased activity of BNST neurons.
“When a female takes her first sip of alcohol, these neurons go crazy,” explained Dr. Pleil. “And if it has a high level of estrogen, they go even crazier. »» This additional neural activity would encourage female mice to drink more, especially within 30 minutes of the first sip.
-A treatment for the management of alcoholism?
Scientists also managed to show how estrogen became the conductor of mouse behavior. This links to receptors on the surface of neurons, where it directly modulates communication between cells.
“We believe that this is the first time that someone has demonstrated that during a normal estimate cycle, the endogenous estrogen produced by the ovaries can use such a rapid mechanism to control behavior”said Dr. Pleil.
Thus, inhibiting the enzyme which synthesizes estrogens could constitute a treatment against excessive alcohol consumption when the hormone levels are at the highest. This medication has already been approved by the FDA for the treatment of women with hormone -dependent cancer.
“The association of this medication with compounds that modulate the downstream effects of the chemical substances produced by BNST neurons could potentially provide a new targeted approach to the treatment of disorders related to alcohol consumption”, estimated Dr. Pleil.
This study offers new lighting on female behavior in the face of alcohol. “We know much less about what motivates alcohol consumption in women, because most of the studies have been carried out on men,” said Dr. Kristen Pleil. And this while women are more sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol on health than men.
