WE lap up any study saying a cheeky glass of red is good for us.
And the polyphenols in wine may be good for the heart in moderation, a growing body of evidence suggests booze is detrimental to the brain.
In the UK, there are around 982,000 people living with dementia, a figure predicted to rise to 1.4 million by 2040 and more than double by 2050.
The increase is thought to be driven by improved testing, an ageing population and lifestyle habits such as smoking and drinking.
While there’s still no cure for dementia, experts say the best defence is lowering your risk through everyday choices.
This is because research suggests up to 45 per cent of cases may be linked to lifestyle and environmental factors that can be changed.
Until recently, experts only linked heavy drinking to dementia risk.
But the largest study of its kind, published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, has found that knocking back just a couple of drinks a week can raise the risk – with no safe level for protecting the brain.
Drinking alcohol is thought to shrink white matter in the brain, which carries signals between regions.
This can lead to problems with the way the brain functions.
Researchers at Oxford University analysed health records from more than 559,000 people in the UK and US, tracking them for up to 12 years.
Around 14,500 people developed dementia during the study period.
They found that dementia risk climbed steadily with each drink consumed.
Just one to three additional drinks a week pushed risk up by around 15 per cent, they found.
People with a genetic tendency to drink more were 16 per cent more likely to develop the condition.
The researchers discovered no protective effect from light or moderate drinking, overturning the long-held idea that the occasional glass might help brain health.
They wrote: “Our findings support a detrimental effect of all types of alcohol consumption on dementia risk, with no evidence supporting the previously suggested protective effect of moderate drinking.”
The NHS says that in order to keep health risks from alcohol to a low level, drink no more than 14 units per week.
This is the equivalent to six pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of lower-strength wine.
But experts and health organisations now generally agree that there is no ‘safe’ level of alcohol consumption, only a lower risk the less that you drink.
Alcohol misuse is linked to so many health conditions, from dementia to several cancers, liver disease and infertility.
It comes after a study published in July found getting heart conditions such as heart disease and atrial fibrillation, as well as diabetes, before age 55 could raise your risk of dementia later in life.
And developing strokes, anxiety or depression between 55 and 70 may double the danger.
The harms of binge drinking
The NHS defines binge drinking as ‘drinking heavily over a short space of time’.
More than 8 units of alcohol in a single session for males, or more than 6 units in a single session for females is the technical definition, according to Drinkaware.
That’s equivalent to about four pints of normal strength beer for a man or three pints for a woman.
When you binge drink, other than getting drunk, your heart rate and blood pressure will rise. It can cause irregular heartbeats, known as arrhythmias.
Alcohol increases stomach acid production – queue the nausea and potentially vomiting.
You’re also likely to experience impaired judgement, coordination, memory blackouts and poor decision making.
This could lead to accidents, falls, drownings and other mistakes.
Long term, binge drinking can cause acute liver damage and increase the risk of chronic liver diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Cardiovascular problems include cardiomyopathy – which is when the heart loses the ability to pump blood efficiently – and an increased risk of stroke.
Over time, binge drinking can contribute to permanent brain damage. This may present as a mental health condition, such as anxiety or depression.
Binge drinking can also lead to alcohol dependence, or “addiction”.
