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There have been lots of recent headlines about the dangers of alcohol consumption when it comes to increasing your cancer risk and contributing to your chance of developing liver disease, high blood pressure and more.
Alcohol use is also linked to cognitive decline, and a recent study published in the journal Neurology found that consuming a certain number of drinks each week increases the chance of brain injuries that can increase your risk of dementia.
Researchers in Brazil studied 1,781 people after death via autopsy and found that those who had up to seven and more than eight drinks weekly had higher chances of brain injuries that are connected to memory function and dementia.
Relatives of the participants reported their drinking habits. Participants were then broken up into four categories; people who never drank, moderate drinkers (those who consumed up to seven standard drinks each week), heavy drinkers (those who consumed eight or more standard drinks each week) and former drinkers (those who had not had alcohol in at least three months but were heavy drinkers prior). A standard drink was considered 14 grams of alcohol, or the equivalent to 12 ounces of beer or 5 ounces of wine.
There are limitations to this study. Family members may have misremembered, or not truly known, how much their relative drank. But, experts agree that the study underscores the negative impact alcohol has on the brain.
“The findings of this study confirm what we have thought for a long time, in that chronic alcohol use can be associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Mike Sevilla, a family medicine physician in Ohio, told HuffPost via email. Sevilla is not affiliated with the study.
More, the amount of alcohol that can lead to brain injury is likely lower than you’d expect with researchers defining “heavy” drinking as eight or more drinks each week. That’s a glass of wine every night and, say, two on a Saturday.
“Heavy drinking, in as defined by these authors, is not all that heavy. It’s not the person who’s drinking a quart vodka every night, which I think everyone would recognize that’s probably not good for your brain,” said Dr. Brendan Kelley, the clinical operations vice chair in the department of neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Texas. Kelley is not affiliated with the study.
“I think there’s also an important public health message in there as well, that while moderation may be less harmful or toxic to your brain, moderation may be a little bit lower than what we intuitively think,” he said.
Here’s what to know about alcohol consumption risk of cognitive decline:
Having eight or more drinks each week contributed to brain injury most, but having seven or fewer drinks each week also was damaging.
Those in the heavy drinker category had 133% higher risk of hyaline arteriolosclerosis, which is the thickening and hardening of the arteries, and which can impact memory function. Former heavy drinkers had an 89% higher risk of the condition and moderate drinkers had a 60% increased risk.
“Hyaline arteriosclerosis leads to decreased travel of blood through the brain tissue, which can lead to episodes of small strokes in the brain, which definitely result in increased dementia,” said Sevilla.
Healthy blood circulation is important for a healthy brain (and a healthy body, too). When it comes to blood supply in relation to your brain, “at a very high level, our blood supply brings all of the nutrients … all of the micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals, the blood supply is what’s delivering those to the cells, to the neurons,” Kelley noted. Our blood supply also carries away waste, he said.
“In the normal state, your blood vessels are flexible. So, as the pressure increases … if you think of the pulse as a wave that’s coming through, it’s going to expand and be able to dynamically move,” Kelley said.
As the blood vessels harden, “it’s going to basically drive up the pressure and be more rigid in terms of delivering blood supply,” he said.
Meaning, it’ll be harder for the nutrients to get where they need to go and for toxins to get out.
“We as a field, as neurology, are increasingly recognizing that paying attention to those vascular components [your blood vessel system] is really going to be important for our patients in terms of preserving their brain health and preserving their cognitive function,” said Kelley.
Specifically, research is being done regarding the very small blood vessels that branch off of the larger blood vessels. “Because we recognize in the field that they play a critical role, not just in developing cognitive impairment, but also in propagating Alzheimer’s disease changes in the brain,” Kelley said.
Study researchers also found that heavy drinkers and former heavy drinkers were also more likely to develop neurofibrillary tangles (41% and 31% higher respectively), also known as tau tangles, which “are the distinct protein structures in the brain most associated with dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease, especially in more severe later stages,” Sevilla said.
“Even for those who are no longer chronic alcohol users, the injury to the brain may have already been done, as their risk for dementia is still there,” added Sevilla.
Lucy Lambriex via Getty Images
No matter how old you are, it’s never too late to make lifestyle changes.
If you find that you’re drinking in the heavy or moderate categories often, it could be a good idea to cut back on your alcohol consumption. Not only will this benefit your brain health, but will benefit your overall health, too.
“Those same factors that are good for our cardiac health, our heart health, it just makes natural sense that they’re also going to be good for preserving our brain health,” said Kelley.
Regular exercise, a nutritious diet and taking any necessary medications are great ways to keep both your heart and brain healthy. “It’s never too late to make these positive changes,” Kelley said.
Kelley also pointed out that in the study, heavy drinkers and former heavy drinkers had higher rates of smoking, which is also detrimental to both your brain and heart health.
“That also is probably almost like a double whammy, where you’ve got multiple factors kind of beating up on the vascular system,” Kelley said.
While it’s not too late to add healthy interventions to your lifestyle, it’s also not too late to cut out the things that are harmful.
“Even people who are in their 70s and still smoking can still enjoy a positive benefit for brain health and also for their overall health by smoking cessation even later in life,” he noted.
“I think there’s also probably a normal human tendency that as you’re getting older, you’re like, oh, darn, I wish I had done this 20 years ago. But I think it’s just important to really emphasize to people it’s never too late to start,” Kelley said.
Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.