Having just one drink a day can shrink your brain, new study finds
By Ben Turner
"Drinking even a single pint of beer or glass of wine a day shrinks the brain, and the effect worsens as the daily drinks increase, a new study of middle-age and older adults suggests.
..the brains of people who drank two alcoholic units a day — equivalent to a pint (16 ounces) of beer or a 6-ounce glass of wine — had shrunk to appear two years older than the brains of people who consumed none.
And the more drinks that people consumed, the larger the differences in their brains to those who drank none.
..participants who drank even one alcoholic unit (half a pint of beer or a half-glass of wine) per day had noticeable differences to their brains' structure, particularly in the brain stem, putamen and amygdala — areas of the brain responsible for regulating heart rate, breathing, learning and motor control, and processing emotions, like fear.
..researchers note that the shrinking of white and gray matter happened even in people who consumed very few units of alcohol.
The new findings also go against most current scientific and government guidance."