Even low daily consumption can damage the brain. It is the result of a new study published in the journal NatureCommunications : from one unit of alcohol per day – or a 25 cl glass of beer for example – the brain begins to be damaged. And each additional drink adds additional consequences.
A team from the University of Pennsylvania observed the MRIs of 36,678 people, with alcohol consumption ranging from low (one to two units per day) to high (more than four units per day). “The fact that we have a very large sample allows us to find subtle differences, such as the impact of drinking the equivalent of 25 cl and 50 cl of beer per day”says Gideon Nave, one of the authors of the study.
Going from drinking zero to one unit of alcohol didn’t make a big difference in brain volume. On the other hand, going from one to two units generates an aging of two years, and go from two to three units of three and a half years… And so on. “The more you drink, the worse it gets“, explains Professor Remi Daviet, another author of this study. The difference between zero and four units of alcohol per day – or two pints of beer for example – was more than 10 years of aging.
Aging due to the reduction of gray and white matter
In reality, brain aging is due to reduction of white matter and gray matter, which make up the brain. The first is used to disseminate information in the nervous system while the second is used to store information and perform mental operations. “Our results contrast with scientific and government guidelines on alcohol consumption limits. For example, although the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism recommends that women consume no more than one drink per day on average, for men the amounts are set at double, an amount that therefore exceeds the level of consumption that, in our study, we found associated with a decrease in brain volume“, is surprised one of the authors of the study.
In France, Santé Publique France recommends drink no more than ten standard drinks of alcohol per weeki.e. two glasses maximum per day and not every day.
From now on, the authors of the study will look into the effects of excessive alcohol consumption. “We’re curious if drinking a beer daily isn’t better than drinking none during the week and then seven over the weekend.“, concludes the researcher Gideon Nave.
Sources:
- “Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank”, NatureCommunicationsMarch 4, 2022
- Public Health France
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- What is the “hangxiety”, which occurs the day after (too) alcoholic evenings?
- Alcohol addiction: numbers, symptoms and treatment
- At what age should you really avoid alcohol?
