Even low-level drinking is bad for long-term brain health, MRI shows
New research is bringing unwelcome news to anyone who loves an evening elixir—even low amounts of alcohol intake affect the brain on a physiologic and structural level.
Current guidelines suggest that consuming one or fewer drinks per day for women and two or less for men is considered low-level drinking and is accompanied by minimal health risks. New imaging findings published in the journal Alcohol, however, indicate that even low-level drinking affects the brain over time.
This latest study builds on the team's prior work by analyzing how drinking patterns manifest in the form of longitudinal changes over a period of up to three years.
“The neurobiological correlates of low-level drinking in healthy adults are not well characterized,” Timothy C. Durazzo, PhD, with the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues explained. “To date, no study has concurrently assessed the associations of low-level alcohol consumption, modeled as a continuous rather than categorical variable, with regional brain perfusion (blood flow) and morphometrics in healthy, nonsmoking adults.”
For the study, the team recruited healthy nonsmoking adult participants to undergo brain imaging. Each participant consumed less than 60 drinks per month (per dietary guidelines for low-level drinking) during the year preceding the study; they had no history of alcohol use disorder nor neurological conditions. Researchers used participants’ MRIs to measure regional brain perfusion and cortical volumes and thickness.
On imaging, the combination of being older and having consumed, on average, 60 or fewer drinks every month for a year resulted in lower perfusion in multiple brain regions, but mostly in the frontal, parietal and occipital lobes, as well as lower bilateral average cortical perfusion. This also correlated with a thinner cortex, especially in the bilateral frontal and parietal lobes; reduced cortical thickness also was observed.
These findings further emphasize the notion that no amount of consistent alcohol intake can be considered inconsequential, the authors suggested.
“Findings indicate alcohol consumption considered ‘low risk’ may have consequences for the integrity of cortical tissue, particularly with advancing age,” the authors cautioned. “These results may have implications for current harm reduction strategies and alcohol consumption public health guidelines.”
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In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.