Even Moderate Drinking Found To Be Linked to Brain Changes and Cognitive Decline



According to a recent study, drinking seven or more alcoholic beverages per week is associated with brain alterations and cognitive deterioration.

A recent PLOS Medicine study with over 21,000 participants discovered a link between higher levels of iron in the brain and weekly alcohol use of seven or more units. Iron accumulation in the brain has been linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's illnesses and may play a role in the cognitive deterioration brought on by alcohol consumption.

There is growing evidence that even moderate alcohol consumption can harm the health of the brain. Alcohol consumption and brain iron levels were examined by Anya Topiwala and colleagues from the University of Oxford in the UK.

They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at the brains of 20,965 volunteers from the UK Biobank who supplied information on their personal alcohol intake. A total of nearly 7,000 persons had their livers evaluated using MRI in order to detect the levels of systemic iron. Each participant completed a battery of simple tests to measure their cognitive and motor skills.

The participants' average age was 55, and 48.6% of them were female. The average weekly intake was 18 units, or around 7.5 cans of beer or 6 big glasses of wine, even though 2.7% of respondents said they weren't drinkers. The basal ganglia are a group of brain regions involved with motor control, procedural learning, eye movement, cognition, emotion, and other processes. The researchers found that alcohol use of more than seven units per week was associated with signs of elevated iron in the basal ganglia. Poorer cognitive performance has been linked to iron buildup in specific brain areas.

The relationship between iron buildup and moderate alcohol use has only recently been studied in depth. Although drinking was self-reported and could be overestimated, this was thought to be the only practical way to determine the intake for such a huge sample. The fact that MRI-derived measures are indirect representations of brain iron poses a drawback to the study since it may be possible to confuse other brain changes associated with alcohol use with changes in iron levels.

Given the frequency of moderate drinking, even minor relationships can have a significant impact on entire populations, and measures to lower consumption in the general population may be advantageous.

In the greatest study to date, Topiwala continues, we discovered a link between weekly alcohol consumption of more than 7 units and iron buildup in the brain. Poorer cognitive performance has also been associated to higher brain iron levels. Alcohol-related cognitive deterioration may be attributed to iron buildup.

Reference: "Associations between moderate alcohol use, brain iron, and cognition in UK Biobank participants: Observational and mendelian randomization analyses," Anya Topiwala, Chaoyue Wang, Klaus P. Ebmeier, Stephen Burgess, Steven Bell, Daniel F. Levey, Hang Zhou, Celeste McCracken, Adriana Roca-Fernández, Steffen E. Petersen, Betty Raman, Masud Husa

By PLOSA

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