Most everyone knows that alcohol isn’t great for you, especially when drinking a lot of it. Despite this, most people drink at least socially, and many of them drink to excess on a regular occasion.

If you are looking for yet another reason to cut back, a new study published in the journal Neurology shows that those who consume eight or more alcoholic drinks per week have increased chances of developing a vascular brain lesion called hyaline arteriolosclerosis. How much higher? 133%!

Note that drinking eight alcoholic beverages per week is generally not considered excessive by most people (though in this study it was), since it could be as little as one glass of wine with dinner every day, and one extra glass on the weekends.

Alberto Fernando Oliveira Justo is a postdoc at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School in Brazil and also a co-author of the paper. He said in a statement:

“We found heavy drinking is directly linked to signs of injury in the brain. and this can cause long-term effects on brain health, which may impact memory and thinking abilities.”

The study looked at almost 1800 brain autopsies from patients whose drinking history was known. The brains were classified into the following categories: never drinkers, moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers, and former drinkers.

The paper found that everyone except the never drinkers saw a notable increase in hyaline arteriolosclerosis as well as neurofibrillary tangles.

For the purposes of the study, the classifications for never drinkers are those who don’t drink at all, moderate drinkers consume 1-7 alcoholic drinks per week, heavy drinkers drink 8 or more, and former drinkers are anyone who was previously a heavy drinker in their life.

The risk of these brain issues does go down for those who quit drinking, though not as low as the never drinkers. They found that former drinkers had an 89% increase, and moderate drinkers still had a 60% increased risk.

The study also found that heavy drinkers died, on average, 13 years younger than those who never drink. They also found links to other brain-related issues, including a buildup of tau proteins, which is a known marker of Alzheimer’s disease.

Justo went on to talk about the seriousness of alcohol consumption in society:

“Our research shows that heavy alcohol consumption is damaging to the brain, which can lead to memory and thinking problems. Understanding these effects is crucial for public health awareness and continuing to implement preventive measures to reduce heavy drinking.”

It has long been known that alcohol consumption had a negative impact on overall health, though there are also some studies that link light alcohol use with some benefits as well.

This study seems to point in the direction that even the often justified ‘one glass with dinner’ is more dangerous than many people previously believed.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?