This is how alcohol consumption affects the brain and the body: the conclusions of various studies

The most direct consequence of alcohol in our body is a hangover. This feeling is explained in part because alcohol dehydrates the body. However, this is one of the effects that should worry us least about this habit. A study by ‘The Lancet’ ensures that any consumption of more than 12.5 units of alcohol per week, which would be equivalent to five pints of beer or five glasses of wine per week, reduces life expectancy. According to research, a consumption of 18 pints of beer or glasses of wine a week, life expectancy is reduced to 4-5 years. Cardiovascular diseases This is due to the consequences that alcohol has on our body. In the same study published in ‘The Lancet’, researchers found that the consumption of alcoholic beverages carries “a higher risk of other very serious and potentially lethal cardiovascular diseases.” Specifically, the authors associated alcohol consumption with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, fatal aortic aneurysms, and high blood pressure or fatal heart failure. Damage to the brain Alcohol consumption generates a state of inflammation in the brain and is also associated with an increased risk of stroke. In addition, according to a Spanish investigation published in ‘JAMA Psychiatry’, it has shown for the first time that alterations in the structure of the brain do not begin to reverse immediately after giving up alcohol. What alcohol produces in our brain are “microstructural changes” in the white matter of the brain, which persist in periods of withdrawal. Cognitive impairments An analysis of data from more than 36,000 adults, led by a team at the University of Pennsylvania and published in ‘Nature Communications’, certified that light to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with reductions in overall brain volume. According to the study, people who drink heavily have alterations in the structure and size of the brain that are associated with cognitive deficiencies. Aging Researchers from Oxford Population Health point out in a publication in ‘Molecular Psychiatry’ after a new genetic analysis that alcohol directly accelerates aging by damaging the DNA in the telomeres. Telomeres are sequences of DNA, structures that protect the ends of chromosomes and get shorter as the body ages.