Booze link to brain damage

– Even moderate drinking is linked to brain damage and a slight decline in mental skills, according to a study released yesterday that calls into question many national alcohol guidelines.

Men and women who consume 14-21 drinks a week over decades are two to three times more likely than nondrinkers to show atrophy in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that governs memory and the ability to keep one’s bearings, said the study, published in the medical journal BMJ.

They also performed more poorly on a specific verbal test, though other language functions appeared to remain unchanged.

A single drink was defined as containing 10ml of pure alcohol – the equivalent of a large glass of wine, a pint of 5% beer, or a shot of spirits such as whisky or vodka.

The UK last year revised its guidelines for alcohol consumption, lowering the recommended maximum to 14 units a week.

In other countries, that threshold is set higher for men: 35 units in Spain, 24.5 in the US, 21 in Denmark and 19 in New Zealand.

For women, guidelines in all of these nations, except for Spain, is 14 drinks or less.

The negative impact of heavy drinking on the brain is well documented but research on potential damage from “moderate” consumption – two or three drinks a day – has been inconclusive. – AFP