Whether it's winding down after a hard day's work with a cold beer or a bold glass of red, most of us love a drink occasionally, or why not every day.
While the detrimental impact of 'binge drinking' and regularly consuming large amounts of alcohol has been extensively documented, it's possible that your end-of-day drink could also be doing your brain a significant amount of damage.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two drinks or less in a day for a man, and one drink or less in a day for women. In 2018, a little over 5 percent of adults engaged in heavy drinking in the past year, 15.5 percent engaged in moderate drinking, 45.7 percent in light drinking, and 33.7 percent did not consume alcohol, according to the CDC.
Some studies have argued that a small amount of regular alcohol can actually be good for you, but most experts would disagree.
It's possible that anything more than one drink a day for women and double that for men could be having a harmful effect on your brain. Earlier in 2023, new drinking guidelines from the Canadian government recommended people limit themselves to just two drinks a week, and ideally cutting it out altogether.
Newsweek spoke to neuroscientist Friederike Fabritius about the effect that minimal regular drinking could be having on our brains.
Can One Glass of Wine a Day Damage Our Brains?
Alcohol reduces brain volume by causing brain cells and cells in their connective tissue to expel water. On average, adults aged 50 who drank a pint of beer or a six-ounce glass of wine (two units) every day in the past month had brains that were seemingly two years older than those who drank half a beer (one unit) a day, according to a study from 2022 published in the journal Nature.
"Even small amounts of alcohol will make you lose brain volume, which is not a good thing," according to Fabritius. One glass of wine a day for example, will essentially do everything that binge drinking will do, just in smaller amounts. In addition to affecting brain function, Fabritius said that drinking can have a negative effect on our mental health.
"First of all, alcohol removes inhibitions which can mean we do things we regret while drunk which can affect our mental health," said Fabritius. Alcohol is a toxin so it destroys our cells, and memory formation as well as storage are supressed.
Alcohol consumption also affects cortisol levels, the stress hormone, and blocks serotonin levels in the long term. "Serotonin is a neuromodulator for well-being and feeling happy or in a good mood," explains Fabritius. "So it will impact your mood and emotions long-term. Yes, first you will get a burst of energy and positive feelings, but afterwards your mood gets lower and it will stay lower over time.
"Cortisol is increased in response to stress, and if you drink even small amounts on a regular basis, your core cortisol levels will be elevated," she added. "This means that drinking makes you more stressed, less motivated, and it changes your ability to plan ahead and to do smart, forward thinking. Of course, there are differences between people so some people can metabolize it better than others, but the science stays the same."
Can We Drink Without Causing Ourselves Harm?
If you ask Fabritius, there is no safe amount of alcohol to drink. "Even people who drink once a week will see that their brains shrink. So why should you do that to yourself?" she said.
This, of course, is down to personal choice and whether you choose to drink or not, it's a good idea to be aware of any potential dangers.
"I think many people think that small amounts are OK and even healthy for you due to all those studies that stated people who drink red wine live longer and all of that. Yes, there's some resveratrol in red wine but this still doesn't mean that drinking is healthy for you," said Fabritius. "Also, those were all correlational studies. So it's not that people live longer because they have been drinking alcohol."
If you do want to drink, red wine might be the best choice, according to Fabritius. "Red wine would be your best choice—at very low level. One to four very small glasses per week," she recommended. "There may be some micronutrients that are beneficial, but it's still controversial. Some scientists think it may be beneficial. Others disagree."
Resveratrol is a naturally occurring, powerfully potent antioxidant that is most prominently found in the skin of red grapes. Some studies have found that resveratrol could be connected to a lower risk of inflammation and blood clotting, thus decreasing the risk of heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. But other studies found no such benefits.
"As far as resveratrol is concerned, scientists still debate whether it has a positive impact or not," said Fabritius. "If you want to increase resveratrol, you would have to drink so much red wine that the overall impact of the alcohol would cancel the potential benefits. So red wine won't help with that."
The way you drink alcohol can also make a difference to the damage it can cause. "If you eat a good meal with healthy proteins, carbs, and fats before you drink versus doing so on an empty stomach, then at least it will slow down the time the alcohol takes to get in to your system."
Fabritius also suggested that if you regularly eat fermented foods, and probiotics and prebiotics, it may protect your gut and therefore the microbiome, from the harmful effects of alcohol.
Finally, despite all the doom and gloom, in many circumstances, the harmful effects of alcohol can be reversed. "If you abstain for two to six months, you will see that your microbiome recovers, your hypothalamus-adrenal-stress axis recovers, your serotonin levels recover, and your GABA [the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain] recovers," revealed Fabritius. "You can likely regain normal functions in the inhibitory regions of your prefrontal cortex, so that's pretty good. Overall, it's reversible, but of course for people who have been heavily drinking for a long time, they could see these impacts last them a lifetime. So it's less positive for people who have really been drinking heavily."
Is there a health issue that's worrying you? Let us know via health@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Leonie Helm is a Newsweek Life Reporter and is based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on all things ... Read more
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