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What that daily drink does to your brain’s age
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you’re a rule follower when it comes to alcohol…
Every night, you uncork a bottle of wine, pour a reasonable sized glass, and put the bottle in the fridge. You practice the kind of drinking that everyone tells you is safe (or maybe even beneficial) from a health perspective.
If that’s the case, you should be proud of yourself for not over-indulging. Too many people get carried away with friends on the weekend, overdo it at the bar after work or take down a whole six-pack on the couch watching baseball — and they pay greatly for it. They have a greater risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, liver disease, and cancer.
But even though moderate drinking is far better than binge-drinking (drinking four or more drinks in a couple of hours), it’s not totally without repercussions…
Case in point? Even the tiniest sip of alcohol every day could be aging your brain faster.
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A sip of alcohol sucks the youth out of your brain
Here’s my motto when it comes to brain aging: the slower, the better. As your brain ages, your memory slips, your cognitive abilities decline, and you lose your independence. Who wants that?
Now, there’s no way to stop brain aging completely. But our brains age at different rates depending on our genetics, environment and lifestyle habits. One habit that leads to quicker brain aging? Drinking alcohol.
A new study from researchers at the University of Southern California shows that even a small sip of alcohol daily makes your brain age faster.
In the study, researchers analyzed brain images from 11,651 people. They found that for every gram of alcohol these people consumed per day, their brain aged by a week.
Now, to put that in perspective, one standard drink contains roughly 14 grams of alcohol. So, one gram is a tiny amount. It’s like one big sip.
If you’re drinking a glass per day, that’s a good 14 extra weeks of brain aging. Actually, it’s even worse…
When researchers calculated the difference in brain age between daily drinkers and those who didn’t drink daily, they found that people who drank had five months of extra brain aging.
And god help you if you’re binge-drinking regularly. Your brain’s probably aging at lightning speed!
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Should you stop drinking for your brain’s sake?
If you love a nightly drink, and you don’t mind having a brain that’s five months older than your peers, have at it. It’s not like it ages your brain by five years.
But even though five months might not seem like that big of a difference, it’s still evidence that tiny amounts of alcohol negatively impact your brain — and possibly other parts of your body.
If you’re looking for other ways to keep your brain young (besides laying off the hooch), you have plenty of options…
- Exercise is one of the best ways to slow (or even reverse!) brain aging.
- Cannabis may be another way to slow down brain aging, although we need more research to know for sure.
- Eating more veggies could help keep your brain young too.
- Getting enough sleep is key to keeping brain aging at bay as well.
- The size of your waistline also makes a big difference in your brain health.
My take here? A healthy lifestyle makes for a healthier brain. It’s common sense, really. But a reminder’s always nice to get us back on track.
Editor’s note: While you’re doing all the right things to protect your brain as you age, make sure you don’t make the mistake 38 million Americans do every day — by taking a drug that robs them of an essential brain nutrient! Click here to discover the truth about the Cholesterol Super-Brain!
Sources:
- Association of relative brain age with tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, and genetic variants — Scientific Reports
- Alcohol and the Brain: Scientists Quantify How Much a Gram Ages the Mind — Inverse
- Binge Drinking — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- What happens to the brain as we age? — Medical News Today
- What Is A Standard Drink? — National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
By Jenny Smiechowski
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