Drinking a little can make you happy, but drinking too much can harm your body? Wrong! Moderate drinking can also damage your brain!

A few days ago, I published a study on the impact of eating out on health. Many people did not agree with the conclusion. Now, there is another study. What do you think about it?

Recently, a research team from the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data from more than 36,000 middle-aged and elderly people and found that:

Even small amounts of alcohol have been linked to reduced brain volume.

Going from zero to one alcohol unit per day, which is 10 mL of pure alcohol, is equivalent to 8 g of alcohol in weight, which does not have much impact on brain capacity.

However, drinking from one to two units of alcohol per day and above was associated with a decrease in both gray and white matter volume.

The more you drink, the worse it gets.

A smaller brain is a sign of aging, specifically, compared to not drinking:

Drinking one unit of alcohol per day is equivalent to half a year of brain aging;

Drinking an average of 2 units of alcohol per day will age the brain by 2 years;

3 units of alcohol per day is equivalent to 3.5 years of brain aging;

Compared with not drinking, 4 units of alcohol a day can cause the brain to age by more than 10 years.

This shows that the impact of drinking on brain aging is exponential.

During the Chinese New Year, it is inevitable that members will have dinner and drink together. So how much is appropriate to drink?

The Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend:

The amount of alcohol that adult males should drink per day should not exceed 25 g, and that of adult females should not exceed 15 g. Any amount exceeding this limit is considered excessive drinking.

But this amount exceeds the amount of alcohol consumed that has been linked in research to decreased brain volume and brain aging.

Similarly, a study involving 28 million people published in The Lancet in 2018 pointed out that there is no safe level of drinking and that drinking will have adverse effects on health.

Therefore, from the perspective of protecting your health, the safest amount of alcohol consumed is zero. It is recommended not to drink alcohol at all.

doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28735-5

doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31310-2