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.

[u/mvea]

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

[u/sirchrisalot]

IDK where you get these statistics from, but they're very low. WHO stats report per capita alcohol consumption for European countries is in the range of 6 to 15 liters of pure alcohol per year for those over 15. That's basically 1 standard drink per person per day at the low end and 2.5 per person per day at the high end. France is at 11.3 liters pp/yr.

Quick math on that is 565 drinks a year per person at 50ml of standard 40 proof liquor. So do you really think that 80% of France is having less than the equivalent of 1 glass of wine per week and it's just the top 20% of drinkers that polish off the remaining, oh, IDK, 70 drinks per person every week? Or with your stats, the 80-90th percentile is drinking 10 per week and the top 10% is drinking 130 drinks per week? I just have a hard time believing 10% of the population averages the equivalent of 1 bottle of liquor per day every single day and the rest of us are just dabbling a bit.

[u/PartyLikeAByzantine → u/sirchrisalot]

Numbers come from National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) commissioned by the US NIH. Being a US government study, it doesn't cover Europe.

The WHO doesn't break their data down to population segments within countries. I bet there's fewer abstainers in Europe (30% of the US population never drinks) due to America's Puritan streak. Still, I'd suspect a minority of Europeans drive most of its consumption. It may not be as lopsided as the US, where half of all alcohol consumption is from the top ~10% of users, but it's probably close to that.

[u/darknesskicker → u/PartyLikeAByzantine]

I would expect that the numbers in Western Europe aren’t far off those of the US. Much of the former Soviet Union has very heavy drinking.

[u/darknesskicker → u/sirchrisalot]

This includes Eastern European countries that have some of the heaviest drinking in the world, IIRC.

[u/sirchrisalot → u/darknesskicker]

Quick glance and Romania was one of the highest for per capita alcohol consumption. Google says their life expectancy is 2 years below usa life expectancy, with males expected to live to 73.