- Researchers looked at brain scans of 11,600 people aged between 45 to 81
- Every extra gram of alcohol per day added 0.02 years onto a person’s brain age
- Similar results were found for each additional pack of cigarettes smoked
- An ‘old’ brain would show more signs of deterioration than what is normal
By VANESSA CHALMERS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE PUBLISHED: 31 January 2020
Blurred vision and slurred speech are expected when someone has drank too much.
How alcohol harms the brain in the long term is not so clearly understood – particularly how it ages the brain.
Now, a study has found drinkers who like a pint of beer or glass of wine every day show more signs their vital organ is shrinking.
Researchers looked at brain scans from thousands of Britons aged between 45 to 81, and compared it with their drinking habits.
For every extra gram of alcohol consumed per day, participants brains’ were 0.02 years older – the equivalent of a day and a half.
An ‘old’ brain would show more signs of deterioration than the brains of average people the same age in scans.
In the 11,600 individuals for whom information on drinking behavior was collected, those who drank alcohol on most days had a higher relative brain age than those who drank less frequently or not at all.