It’s hard to resist the daily pleasure of the aperitif during the holidays… But without wanting to be too much of a killjoy, would you accept some non-alcoholic options? This could keep your brain functioning properly. The explanations of Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at the Magazine de la Santé on France 5.
franceinfo: A British team really observed a toxic effect on neurons from a glass of alcohol a day?
Geraldine Zamansky: So it’s even sadder than that. They found worrying consequences from 7 units of alcohol per week. But to reach them, it is enough to drink 4 cans of beer of 33cl, and about 4 glasses of wine. This was explained to me by Dr. Anya Topilawa, psychiatrist at the University of Oxford and coordinator of this large-scale study. His team analyzed the brain MRIs of more than 20,700 people who also completed a questionnaire on their drinking habits.
Result: a negative effect is therefore observed from 7 weekly units. This effect is first of all an abnormal accumulation of iron in areas of the brain crucial for the control of movements and certain thinking and learning abilities. However, these capacities seem precisely diminished, according to tests carried out the same day. The volunteers concerned performed less well on reasoning exercises, for example. For Dr. Anya Topilawa, this is the first time that such an attack has been identified with such moderate alcohol consumption.
It’s impressive. And they also identified how this accumulation of iron in the brain damages its functioning?
According to Dr. Topilawa, iron causes neuronal death. And there it accumulates in areas well known to be impaired in Alzheimer’s disease. So the link seems very plausible. So be careful, we are talking here about a slight loss of performance, not the onset of amnesia. But this study can be considered as a serious warning since it agrees with previous results on the risks of alcohol.
The neurological sequelae caused by heavy consumption have been known for a long time. And last spring, American researchers had already shown that the equivalent of a beer a day led this time to a kind of accelerated aging of the brain.
Fortunately, Dr. Topilawa also told me about sources of optimism. By becoming more sober, patients had regained a more efficient brain! Is this a good reason to try to reduce the number of alcohol glasses a little this summer, by alternating with sparkling water and a slice of lemon for example?Especially when it’s very hot, because we remember that alcohol tends to accelerate dehydration…