Slashdot Mirror
Moderate Drinking Can Damage the Brain, Claim Researchers (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol can damage the brain and impair cognitive function over time, researchers have claimed. Writing in the British Medical Journal, researchers from the University of Oxford and University College London, describe how they followed the alcohol intake and cognitive performance of 550 men and women over 30 years from 1985. At the end of the study the team took MRI scans of the participants' brains. None of the participants were deemed to have an alcohol dependence, but levels of drinking varied. After excluding 23 participants due to gaps in data or other issues, the team looked at participants' alcohol intake as well as their performance on various cognitive tasks, as measured at six points over the 30 year period. The team also looked at the structure of the participants' brains, as shown by the MRI scan, including the structure of the white matter and the state of the hippocampus -- a seahorse-shaped area of the brain associated with memory. After taking into account a host of other factors including age, sex, social activity and education, the team found that those who reported higher levels of drinking were more often found to have a shrunken hippocampus, with the effect greater for the right side of the brain. While 35% of those who didn't drink were found to have shrinkage on the right side of the hippocampus, the figure was 65% for those who drank on average between 14 and 21 units a week, and 77% for those who drank 30 or more units a week.
From the study: 1 unit is 10mL or 8g of alcohol. 14 units (UK guidance per week for men an women) is 4 pints of high strength beer (5.2%) or 5 large glasses of 14% wine. 24.5 units (US guidance for men) is equivalent to 7 pints of beer or 9 glasses of wine.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Four pints over seven days isn't one or more per day.
are you sure it is not age related? between 20 & 50 is a long time
Age was taken into account. : there's a statistical link between the two.
Still, some people degraded faster than others in this span of time.
And those were significantly more likely to also be drinking.
- Thus the actual conclusion that one real scientist should take home
- Thus also the baseless spin that the press (and even the original BMJ article) are trying to take on it : even light drinking cause brain destruction
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The study cites 14-21 units/week of alcohol as "moderate consumption". That is not moderate, it's definitely into the "high" range. Thus, the conclusion is flawed when the paper talks about moderate consumption, because it isn't.
It you would read the paper, it supports the current UK recommended limits (14 units per week maximum) and posits that the current US limits are too high.
That is perfectly in line with what I've stated in this thread and in other comments on this article.
Eat the rich.
A drink or two a week? That's light drinking. I think you must move in social circles where people rarely drink at all.
In southern Germany, for example, it's not at all unusual to have a beer with your lunch, and another with dinner. In France or Italy, it will be a glass of wine - about the same amount of alcohol. That's 1-2 drinks per day, every day. Plus a couple of extra drinks with your buddies on Friday or Saturday. That's average, or moderate drinking in cultures where alcohol is a normal part of life. I'm typing this in the evening, after work, while sipping my second beer of the day.
As in all things in life, there's a trade-off. Alcohol helps people relax after a stressful day. It also has a few health benefits (or some of the other things contained in drinks do). However, it's also not great for your liver, and possibly your brain, and alcohol abuse is a possibility. Life's a bitch, and then you die.
Heck, you can die from drinking too much water.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.