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Regular heavy drinking could be doing more damage to your brain than simply clouding your memories of a wild night out — and what constitutes “heavy” drinking may be a lot less than you think.
A new study suggests that people who consume eight or more alcoholic drinks a week — just over one a day — are at a higher risk of developing a serious brain injury that’s linked to memory and cognitive problems.
The finding comes as health experts are increasingly sounding the alarm about the dangers of excessive drinking, which is a leading cause of preventable death in the US.
For the study, researchers analyzed brain autopsies from 1,781 people who kicked the bucket at an average age of 75. They also surveyed family members about the participants’ drinking habits.
The team then split the participants into four groups: 965 who never drank, 319 moderate drinkers (seven or fewer drinks per week), 129 heavy drinkers (eight or more drinks per week), and 368 former heavy drinkers.
Researchers defined one drink as 14 grams of alcohol — about 350 milliliters of beer, 150 milliliters of wine or 45 milliliters of distilled spirits.
They found that heavy drinkers were 133% more likely to develop brain lesions compared to those who never drank after adjusting for factors such as age, smoking and physical activity.
The lesions are a sign of hyaline arteriolosclerosis, a condition that causes small blood vessels to thicken and stiffen, restricting blood flow and causing brain damage.
Over time, this leads to cognitive issues like memory loss, difficulty thinking and trouble problem-solving.
If you think you’re safe because you’ve put down the bottle, think again: Former heavy drinkers were 89% more likely to develop these brain lesions than those who stayed sober, while moderate drinkers had a 60% greater chance.
The researchers also found that heavy and former heavy drinkers had higher odds of developing tau tangles, a key sign of Alzheimer’s disease, with 41% and 31% greater odds, respectively.
The real kicker? Heavy drinkers died, on average, 13 years earlier than those who abstained entirely.
“We found heavy drinking is directly linked to signs of injury in the brain, and this can cause long-term effects on brain health, which may impact memory and thinking abilities,” said Dr. Alberto Fernando Oliveira Justo, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School.
“Understanding these effects is crucial for public health awareness and continuing to implement preventive measures to reduce heavy drinking,” he added.
Drinking leads to more than just bad decisions
Alcohol isn’t just messing with your balance and coordination. In the short term, booze messes with your brain’s processing speed, making it hard to string words together and delaying your reflexes, according to the CDC.
Add in the loss of inhibitions, and suddenly you’re more prone to risky, impulsive behavior — frequently leading to accidents, car crashes, falls and even drownings.
At higher levels, drinking can also lead to alcohol poisoning, which can shut down vital bodily functions like breathing and heart rate.
But for most people, the real trouble starts down the road: Over time, excessive drinking can wreck your health. In fact, more than 20,000 Americans die from alcohol-related cancers every year.
This startling statistic prompted former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to call for warning labels on alcoholic drinks about their cancer risks.
Long-term heavy drinking can also bring chronic conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, stroke and mental health issues.
Of the 178,000 Americans who die annually from excessive alcohol use, government data shows that about two-thirds are victims of chronic conditions caused by years of heavy drinking.
The remaining third of alcohol-related deaths are tied to binge drinking or excessive drinking in a single sitting, resulting in car crashes, drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning and suicides.
