Excessive Drinking Decreases Brain Size

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Excessive drinking on a regular basis can decrease your brain size, according to a new study.

Brain scans of more than 1,800 people showed that those who consumed more than 14 drinks a week had about 1.6 percent reduction in the ratio of brain volume to skull size compared with non-drinkers.

Researchers from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, whose findings were presented last week to the American Academy of Neurology in Boston, also discovered that drinking had a bigger impact on brain volume in women than in men. Women in their 70s appeared most affected by large amounts of alcohol.

The researchers examined results of brain scans which were performed on men and women 34 to 88 years old with no signs of dementia. Dividing the group into nondrinkers, former drinkers, low, moderate and high drinkers, the researchers measured brain volume in relation to skull size, considering a marker of brain aging.

People with a 12-year history of heavy drinking had smaller brain size than those who began drinking more moderately during that period and later consumed greater amounts, the study showed.

Heavy drinking seemed to have the most negative impact on the brain volume of women in their 70s. Past studies have suggested that older women have risk factors that make them particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of heavy drinking.

Size reductions in certain parts of the brain have been linked to Alzheimer's disease in previous research. More than 12 million Americans could be diagnosed as alcohol dependent, and consuming 12 to 15 drinks a week places a person at risk of the condition, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.