A University Of Oxford Study Revealed Moderate Drinking Might Lead To Cognitive Decline And Diseases Such As Alzheimer’s And Parkinson’s
Do you have a daily glass of wine with dinner? What about a beer while watching a sports game?
Previous research had found that “moderate drinking”– one glass of alcohol per day for women versus two glasses per day for men– is healthy.
But, a new study conducted by Anya Topiwala and her team at the University of Oxford just revealed that these drinking habits might lead to cognitive decline.
The study included nearly twenty-one thousand participants from the UK Biobank who self-reported their own alcohol consumption before undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
About seven thousand participants also underwent liver imaging to determine systemic iron levels.
On average, each participant reported drinking seven and a half cans of beer– or six large glasses of wine– per week.
And the researchers found that this level of “moderate” drinking contributes to higher iron levels inside the brain– particularly in the basal ganglia region, which is responsible for motor movement control, procedural learning, emotion, cognition, and more.
People with elevated iron levels have been shown to develop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease– revealing that moderate drinking may accelerate alcohol-related cognitive decline.
This study conducted by the University of Oxford is the largest to date– and Topiwala hopes her findings will caution adults about daily drinking habits.
Drobot Dean – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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“We found drinking greater than seven units of alcohol weekly is associated with iron accumulation in the brain,” Topiwala underscored.
“Higher brain iron is linked to poorer cognitive performance, and iron accumulation could underlie alcohol-related cognitive decline.”
The study did have some limitations, including how each participant’s alcohol consumption was self-reported and may have been underestimated.
However, the researchers deemed this the only reasonable method to study such a large population of adults.
And with moderate drinking being such a normalized habit in popular culture, even a small link to cognitive decline may have drastic implications across the global adult population.
In turn, cutting down on weekly alcohol consumption may be the safest bet to ward off any disease.
To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here.
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