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The science on heavy drinking and the brain is clear: The two dont have a healthy relationship. People who drink heavily have alterations in brain structure and size that are associated with cognitive impairments.
But according to a new study, alcohol consumption even at levels most would consider modesta few beers or glasses of wine a weekmay also carry risks to the brain. An analysis of data from more than 36,000 adults, led by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, found that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption was associated with reductions in overall brain volume.
The link grew stronger the greater the level of alcohol consumption, the researchers showed. As an example, in 50-year-olds, as average drinking among individuals increases from one alcohol unit (about half a beer) a day to two units (a pint of beer or a glass of wine) there are associated changes in the brain equivalent to aging two years. Going from two to three alcohol units at the same age was like aging three and a half years. The team reported their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
The fact that we have such a large sample size allows us to find subtle patterns, even between drinking the equivalent of half a beer and one beer a day, says Gideon Nave, a corresponding author on the study and faculty member at Penns Wharton School. He collaborated with former postdoc and co-corresponding author Remi Daviet, now at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Perelman School of Medicine colleagues Reagan Wetherillalso a corresponding author on the studyand Henry Kranzler, as well as other researchers.
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/one-alcoholic-drink-day-linked-reduced-brain-size
TygrBright
(20,755 posts)Wonder if there's a connection...
speculatively,
Bright
Floyd R. Turbo
(26,545 posts)captain queeg
(10,104 posts)But one of the statistics I saw gave large numbers of Russian drinkers who utilize surrogates, meaning substitutes for real booze like, well Im not sure. Used to be folks would drink anti-freeze (different kind of alcohol nowadays), sterno, after shave, etc. Id imagine thats got to really damage the brain.