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A new study found links between alcohol and brain size, showing how many a day can impact the health of people’s brains.
Alcohol is often linked with negative health side effects. It’s correlated with weight gain, cancer, and a variety of diseases. A new study focusing on the brain shows the reach of alcohol’s negative effects, showing that just a drink a day is enough to shrink people’s brains. The more drinks are consumed, the worse the harm.
Published in the journal Naturethe study showed that 50-year-old subjects who had a glass of wine or a beer a day had smaller brains than subjects who only drank half of a beer a day.
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Brain size is linked with age, with brains beginning to shrink as people enter their 30s and 40s. Study results showed that those who consumed three drinks a day had brains that were three years older than their real age. Having four drinks a day resulted in brains looking a decade older. “It gets worse the more you drink,” said study author Remi Daviet.
The study examined data from 36,000 middle-aged adults in the UK, a large sample size that allowed researchers to see differences between people who had a drink a day and people who had half a drink.
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Still, the study can’t imply causation. “Our study is by far the largest investigation of the topic,” study co-author Gideon Nave told CNN. “It uses a general population sample, and it controls for more confounds than before. As such, it provides overwhelmingly more evidence than any previous investigations and gets us closer to settling the debate. ”
Many factors can go into brain decay, which can be impacted by alcohol consumption, not participating in intellectually stimulating activities, and more.
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