5 Drinks a week Can do Damage to your Brain

You may want to think again before heading to the pub after work. Research has indicated that you could be destroying your memory and cognition.

It only appears to take 4 strong beers or 5 glasses of wine a week to do this kind of damage. The consumption of such volumes of alcohol is linked to the risk of mental decline.

This may come as slightly confusing to some, since previous research has suggested moderated drinking is good for you. However, you can’t ignore the size and depth of this study.

(Image: Telegraph)

The research looked at 550 healthy middle-aged British citizens, analyzing changes in their brain structure over a 30 year period. Obviously, none of the participants were alcoholics.

Researchers accounted for anything else that could affect the brain as well, such as smoking, exercise and stroke risk. But, the more they drank, the worse their brain looked.

The heaviest drinkers had the most shrinkage in their hippocampus. This is the area of the brain most affected when it comes to Alzheimer’s. Even those that appeared to be moderating were still affected.

The hippocampus, highlighted in red. (Image: Wikipedia)

It came to some surprise to researchers how even moderated drinking had such an effect. Previous research that provided more positive results obviously never took certain factors into consideration.

Previous studies have indicated that moderate drinking could help protect you from dementia and memory loss. Obviously, that’s not quite the case afterall.

This isn’t a way to stop you from drinking alcohol. Do as you please.

Just remember to be sensible. You only live once… so that doesn’t mean make a mess of it! You can see the research straight from BMJ in the source link below. 

Source: BMJ