Alcohol abuse ‘could harm brain’

Drinking more than the recommended weekly limits can harm a person’s brain health, a new study has found.

The study found that alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of adverse brain outcomes and a steeper decline in cognitive abilities.

Experts from Oxford University and University College London studied 550 civil servants over a 30-year period, repeatedly assessing their alcohol consumption and cognition.

At the most recent review, the researchers examined images of the participants’ brains – which enabled them to explore correlations between average alcohol use, cognition and brain structure.

They found that alcohol use was associated with reduced right hippocampal volume.

And the more a person drank, the more likely they were to have hippocampal atrophy – a form of brain damage that affects memory and spatial navigation, which is regarded as an early marker for Alzheimer’s disease.

Even moderate drinkers – classed for the study’s purposes as drinking between 14 and 21 units a week – were three times more likely to have hippocampal atrophy than abstainers.

Last year, the government changed its guidance on drinking and urged both men and women to drink no more than 14 units each week – the equivalent of six pints of average strength beer.