Scottish Daily Mail

How nightly tipple in middle-age can shrink your brain

- By Ben Spencer Medical Correspond­ent

HAVING a drink or two every night from middle age onwards leaves you more likely to experience a steep decline in brain power in your 70s, research suggests.

Even moderate drinkers triple the risk of significan­t shrinkage in a key part of the brain, scientists discovered.

Consistent­ly drinking between 14 and 21 units a week – the equivalent of six to nine pints of beer or the same number of 175ml glasses of wine – results in brain shrinkage and cognitive decline in old age, they said.

Experts last night warned that the damage from alcohol may start at a lower level than previously thought, and may trigger similar damage to that seen in those with dementia.

Drinking between 14 and 21 units a week used to be considered moderate consumptio­n, and was judged safe for men but not recommende­d for women.

In January 2016 the Government changed its guidance and urged both men and women to drink no more than 14 units each week.

The new research, led by Oxford University and University College London, suggests the damage from alcohol follows a ‘dose-response’ pattern – meaning the impact gets worse the more you drink, starting from quite a low base.

The team, whose findings are published in the British Medical Journal, tracked 550 people for 30 years, from an average age of 43 until 73. They repeatedly assessed their alcohol consumptio­n, tested their cognitive ability and scanned their brains.

They found alcohol use was associated with reduced size of the right hippocampu­s, a part of the brain linked to memory and navigation. Shrinkage of this part of the brain is regarded as an early marker for Alzheimer’s disease. Even moderate drinkers who consumed 14 to 21 units a week were three times more likely to have significan­tly reduced hippocampa­l volume than abstainers, the researcher­s found. They also found that very light drinking – between one and six units a week – had no protective effect compared to abstinence.

Moderate drinkers also showed a faster decline in language fluency than non-drinkers, based on tests involving how many words beginning with a certain letter they could think of in one minute.

Killian Welch, consultant neuropsych­iatrist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, wrote in a separate editorial in the BMJ: ‘The findings strengthen the argument that drinking habits many regard as normal have adverse consequenc­es for health.

‘This is important. We all use rationalis­ations to justify persistenc­e with behaviours not in our long-term interest. With the publicatio­n of this paper, justificat­ion of “moderate” drinking on the grounds of brain health becomes a little harder.’

Andrew Misell of the Alcohol Concern charity said: ‘The researcher­s admit they cannot say for certain that alcohol is causing the effects they have observed. But it does suggest that the damage alcohol can cause to the brain may start at lower levels of drinking than we thought.’

Professor Tom Dening of Nottingham University added: ‘This is a most impressive study and I think it will cause us all to reconsider the advice that we give to patients about alcohol consumptio­n.

‘The findings from research on alcohol often generate strong emotional responses, depending on people’s own views, preference­s and lifestyles. Perhaps we should all drink a bit less.’

‘Habits that many regard as normal’

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