For years we have heard about the health benefits of moderate
drinking. Now there's a study that says even a little alcohol on a
regular basis can be dangerous.
The study, by researchers at
Johns Hopkins University, shows that low to moderate drinking may cause a
loss of brain tissue in middle-age people.
The researchers also
found that such alcohol consumption does not lower the risk of a stroke
- contradicting findings from previous studies.
"I think this
is an interesting study because people talk about the beneficial effects
of alcohol intake on cardiovascular disease and they try to extend that
to stroke," said the study's lead researcher, Dr. Jingzhong Ding, a
research associate at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns
Hopkins. "Some studies find beneficial effects, but ours didn't."
Heavy
drinking is known to raise the risk of both brain atrophy and stroke,
but findings on the effects of low to moderate drinking have varied.
Ding
and his colleagues evaluated 1,909 patients, ages 55 and older, from
North Carolina and Mississippi who were participants in a study on the
buildup of plaque in the arteries. Researchers used information
collected between 1987 and 1989 and followed up every three years until
1995.
Using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRIs, researchers
measured the patients' ventricular and sulcal areas - voids of the brain
containing only cerebrospinal fluid. Increased ventricular and sulcal
size indicates a reduction in brain tissue, or atrophy.
The findings showed that both voids grew larger the more people drank.
Ding
said researchers cannot make a definitive cause-and-effect link between
drinking and brain atrophy because the MRIs were done only once during
the study and because they found only a small reduction in tissue.
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Tuesday, February 09, 2021
The Forgetful Drunk
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