Carlos Solis
A new study by American researchers has found that excessive, regular alcohol consumption significantly increases the risk of fatal brain hemorrhages in people aged 60 and older.
The researchers identified a critical threshold: consuming three or more alcoholic drinks per day.
To put this in perspective, a standard drink, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), contains 12 milliliters of pure ethanol. That’s roughly 250 ml of beer or 150 ml of dry wine.
The researchers analyzed data from 1,600 people, with an average age of 75, who had experienced an intracerebral hemorrhage. Among them, 104 met the criteria for alcohol abuse, defined as regularly consuming three or more drinks per day, as reported by the Daily Mail. Participants underwent a series of brain scans that assessed the severity of their strokes and signs of long-term damage.
They found that people who abused alcohol had strokes with severe bleeding about 11 years earlier than those who did not abuse alcohol. Daily drinkers had significantly larger hemorrhages. These patients were twice as likely to suffer deep brain hemorrhages and were more prone to developing small vessel disease—a form of long-term brain damage.
On average, strokes occurred around age 64 for those who abused alcohol, while people who did not abuse alcohol experienced strokes much later, around age 75. The brain hemorrhages in alcohol abusers were considerably more severe and about 70 percent larger than those in other patients.
Lead researcher Edip Gurol, a stroke specialist at Harvard University, said, “Previous studies have linked excessive alcohol consumption to an increased risk of stroke, but our findings show that it not only worsens the severity of bleeding during a stroke but also causes long-term damage to small brain vessels.”
The study found that people who abused alcohol were three times more likely to show serious signs of white matter damage in the brain from small vessel disease, reflecting chronic damage often caused by high blood pressure. White matter damage is also associated with dementia, particularly vascular dementia.
Dr. Gurol added, “Reducing alcohol consumption not only lowers the risk of bleeding strokes but also slows the progression of small vessel disease in the brain, which may reduce the risk of recurrent strokes.”
The study’s conclusions were published in the journal Neurology.
What You Should Know
Recently, a team of researchers from Oxford, Yale, and Cambridge universities demonstrated that no amount of alcohol is safe concerning the risk of developing cognitive decline. The results, published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, confirmed that even small amounts of alcohol can damage the brain, increasing the likelihood of cognitive decline.
Despite these warnings, the myth of safe alcohol consumption levels persists. The National Health Service of the United Kingdom recommends limiting alcohol intake to 14 units per week. However, experts estimate the average person consumes about 18 units of alcohol weekly.
According to WHO estimates, approximately three million people worldwide die each year from alcohol-related causes.
Photo: Openverse
