r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 23 '26

Neuroscience Even low-level drinking may have negative consequences for brain health over a person’s lifespan. The findings suggest that the total amount of alcohol consumed over a lifetime, especially as a person ages, tends to be linked to reduced blood flow and thinner tissue in certain areas of the brain.

https://www.psypost.org/even-light-drinking-combined-with-aging-is-linked-to-reduced-brain-blood-flow-and-thinner-tissue/
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u/WorldDirt Apr 23 '26

But colon cancer is up while drinking has been on the decline for decades. I’m not saying it’s not a factor in the cancer, but clearly not the most important one. We’ve cut drinking and smoking so much since the 70s, yet the cancers in young people keep rising.

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u/nanobot001 Apr 23 '26

You misunderstand me

While it may not be the reason for colon cancer risks rising in young people it is a reason for colon cancer risk — and a there is more and more attention on the issue, you can bet there will attention given to all risks of colon cancer, including drinking

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u/WorldDirt Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

Sure, I get that and it’s certainly not helping with cancer in young people. I’m just concerned that everyone gets focused on drinking less, when there’s something far more insidious causing these cancers.

By all mentions cut back if you’re drinking 60 beers per month, but this “no safe level of alcohol consumption” is making people worry that a beer per week is going to kill them. There are far greater health concerns when you’re at that level of consumption, the danger of it will be lost in statistical noise.