PHILADELPHIA — Drinking alcohol in moderation is generally defined as having one drink a day for women, two for men. But even those modest-sounding amounts may have negative impacts on the brain, a new study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers suggests.
People who drank the equivalent of just one daily glass of wine — or one can of a higher-potency beer such as India pale ale — were found to have slightly smaller brains, on average, than nondrinkers.
The apparent effect from one daily drink was equivalent to two additional years of brain aging for a typical 50-year-old, the authors determined by analyzing MRI scans of more than 36,000 middle-aged people. And the connection grew sharper with more alcohol: On average, the brains of those who consumed two daily drinks looked 10 years older than those of nondrinkers.
