There is no safe amount of alcohol consumption for the brain, with even “moderate” drinking adversely affecting nearly every part of it, a study of more than 25,000 people has found. The British study, which is still to be peer-reviewed, suggests that the more alcohol consumed, the lower the brain volume. Higher alcohol consumption was associated with lower grey-matter density, the researchers found. Widespread negative associations were also seen between alcohol consumption and integrity of white matter, the brain fibres that scaffold the billions of neurons that make up grey matter. The findings are robust to many alternative assumptions, says Colin Angus, a senior research fellow from the alcohol research group at the University of Sheffield.

Source: The Irish Times May 19, 2021 10:56 UTC