Cancel Happy Hour: Alcohol Shrinks Brain

Drinking Alcohol in Moderate Amounts Changes Brain Size

By Jeanie Lerche Davis
WebMD Health News

Dec. 5, 2003 -- Forget that cabernet at dinner; at happy hour -- just say no. For middle-aged people, drinking alcohol in moderate amounts actually causes the brain to slightly deteriorate, a new study shows.

What's more, you get no protection from stroke -- which runs contrary to previous studies that show moderate alcohol intake is associated with some protection against it.

A new study, published in this month's issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association also delves into this issue of drinking alcohol and brain shrinkage. Previous studies have linked heavy drinking with brain deterioration as well as stroke.

But this is the first to show that even moderate drinking -- causes the same sort of brain atrophy and it occurs as early as in middle age writes researcher Jingzhong Ding, PhD, an epidemiologist with the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Ding's study looks at 1,900 middle-aged men and women living in communities in North Carolina and Mississippi. Each had a magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) brain scan to measure brain volume -- based on the amount of fluid surrounding the brain, not on an actual measure of brain tissue. Greater amounts of fluid surrounding the brain indicate a decrease in the brain mass.

Each also gave information about their drinking habits. Those drinking alcohol less than once a week were "occasional" drinkers; "low" drinkers; had between one and seven drinks a week; "moderate" drinkers; consumed between seven and 14 drinks per week; 25 drinks a week is generally considered "heavy" drinking.

Researchers found that former drinkers and moderate drinkers had higher odds of stroke than those who reported drinking occasionally, even when other lifestyle factors such as smoking, BMI, and diabetes were taken into account, reports Ding.

Also, the brain sizes of moderate drinkers decreased in proportion to the amounts of alcohol increased. This adds more evidence that the brain atrophy process may begin earlier in life than once thought, Ding writes.

It's not known how much this reduction in brain volume affects mental functions, Ding explains. However, these negative effects from drinking alcohol may be partially reversible if you quit drinking, he says.

SOURCE: Ding, J, Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, January 2004.