More Alcohol, Less Brain: Association Begins With an Average of Just One Drink a Day

Also from the article:

“Summary: Light-to-moderate regular alcohol consumption is linked to reductions in overall brain volume, a new study reports.”

https://neurosciencenews.com/alcohol-brain-shrinkage-20135/

Just another reason to do what God has said all along.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8 NKJV

Drinking impedes you being sober or vigilant.

And, I figure I can’t afford any additional brain shrinkage, can you?

David R. Brumbelow

Notice that the correlation to 1 drink/day or less is stated as “may”, which is a key word for “insufficient statistical confidence.” If you look at the actual study, figure 3, you’ll see that gray and white matter actually increases with a few drinks per week and only really trends down below the “abstainer” baseline after more than one drink per day. So we might infer that the optimal point would be 3-4 drinks per week for an average sized person.

Keep in mind as well that this trendline/regression does not account for the average number of drinks per sitting, and along those lines, the traditional imperial pint (20 ounce) pour is just about two servings. So the correlation is weighted down with people who are more or less having 2-6 drinks on Saturday night and abstaining other days—and to the study’s credit, they pretty much admit they didn’t test the difference between consistent low doses and intermittent higher doses.

And a side note; I’m sure that British citizens waiting an average of 102 days to get needed MRIs for serious medical conditions will be highly pleased to see that the NHS performed over 36,000 of them for this study. Just sayin’.