Any dose of alcohol is dangerous for the brain, even “mild” drinking has a negative effect on almost all parts of it. A study involving more than 25,000 Britons revealed that occasional drinking is associated with a loss of cerebral gray matter.
The conclusions of the study, which still has to be reviewed, could be summarized in one sentence: The more you drink, the worse your brain is.
“There is no minimum dose of alcohol. In the past, drinking was thought to damage only certain areas of the brain, but now alcohol seems to affect virtually the entire organ,” she said. The Guardian lead researcher Anya Topiwala of Oxford University.
The researchers analyzed 25,378 people and their health data from a British biobank and tried to uncover the factors that lead to the development of diseases in some, but not in others. They examined age, gender, education, brain size and condition from MRI scans, information about hospital visits, memory tests, and also alcohol consumption.
According to them, the results are surprising, because according to them, drinking alcohol contributes 0.8 percent to the loss of gray matter. This may seem like a small number, but it’s, for example, four times more than smoking or a high BMI (body mass index, pozn. red.), said Topiwala.
The study also denies previous research that a small dose of wine is good for your health. According to the new conclusions, it does not matter whether alcohol is consumed in the form of beer, wine or distillate, it is just as harmful to the brain.
“On a large scale, these effects seem small,” commented Colin Angus of the University of Sheffield, who found the findings of the research convincing. According to him, it is necessary to focus on further research that will reveal how alcohol consumption affects the origin and development of brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
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