A report shows that drinking heavy amounts of alcohol over a long time may reduce brain volume. The study found the more alcohol people drink on an ordinary basis, the lesser their brain volume. The study concerned MRI scans of 1,839 people from the Framingham Offspring study, with ages 34 to 88, who were classified as non-drinkers, former drinkers, low drinkers. MRI scans were performed and used to calculate brain volume, which can be thought of as a measure of brain aging.

The study has demonstrated that there is an advantageous result of alcohol in reducing incidence of cardiovascular illness in people who drink low to moderate amounts of alcohol. The study author Carol Ann Paul, MS, of Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA mentioned though, this study established that greater alcohol consumption was unhelpfully connected with brain volume.

This cross-sectional study found people who had more than 14 drinks per week had a typical 1.6 percent decrease in the percentage of brain volume to skull size compared to people who didn’t drink. In other words, brain volume decreased with a 25 percent on average for each boost in drinking category, for instance non-drinkers, former drinkers, low drinkers, moderate drinkers, or high drinkers.

Furthermore, Paul reported the contrary relationship between drinking and brain volume was slightly bigger in women than in men. As well, consumption of heavy amounts of alcohol seemed to have the major negative impact on brain volume for women in their 70s.

In looking at the longitudinal results of drinking, people who had a 12-year history of heavy drinking had less brain volume than those who changed into the high drinking group during those 12 years. Experts are following up on these results to confirm these dissimilarities hold up.