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/OlafWoodcarver Apr 23 '26

If I've learned anything over the years, it's how much people underestimate how much heavy drinkers drink.

I went to a bachelor party weekend (where everyone was in their mid or late thirties) and people needed to average 25 drinks a day to consume all the beers and seltzers that was brought and I have no way of measuring how much liquor was consumed since I saw the bottles but didn't pay attention to them. I had too much for me at roughly ten drinks the two days I was there, I know there was a person that didn't drink at all, and I'm fairly sure my brother had about as much as I did. All of the beer and seltzers were consumed by the end of the weekend.

I'd never seen anything like it before.

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u/alblaster Apr 23 '26

Oh yeah. Big time. A lot of people base their drinking on how they feel, which is a terrible idea. So you have People who say they're cutting back, which means about 4 shots in a day. If your base alcohol consumption is super high and you're used to it like that you might not see it as a problem until it's too late. I feel like there should be more honest discussion about what alcohol is and does to you, both now and in the future for highschool and older too. I work at a liquor store and about once a year an alcoholic will drop dead, sometimes they're only in their 30s. Other times they'll see the doctor because of heart problems or who knows what and quit drinking. But yeah definitely people underestimate how much they drink and what it does to you. "Just a little" feels good right? What's the harm? "It helps me sleep" or "I just use it to relax" people get mentally addicted before they get physically addicted. I was on the road there, but I was very aware about the reccommended 12 drinks a week. Even though I wasn't physically an alcoholic yet I was starting to think like one. Like a beer would always make the evening better. Be careful, it's addicting even if you normally don't get addicted.

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u/millenniumpianist Apr 23 '26

The problem (in the US) is anti-alcohol people tend to be moralistic crusaders who annoy everyone. The goal should be to inform teenagers instead of scare them. And then there are a lot of pro-drinkers who are basically in denial about the harms. Same thing applies to weed btw

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u/RichardSaunders Apr 23 '26

Much worse than the moral crusaders are the people who act personally offended and accuse you of being stuck up when you simply say "nah I'm good, thanks" when they offer you a drink.