Moderate drinking can harm brain, study says

On Wednesday, the BMJ journal published a study on the effects of moderate drinking on the brain, and the researchers were surprised by their findings. Past studies have confirmed drinking a glass of wine or beer a night is good for your heart and brain. But scientists at the University of Oxford and University College London saw that the brains of moderate drinkers change over time. They reported that the risk of moderate drinking creates hippocampal atrophy, a form of brain damage that involves problems with memory and spatial navigation. What is moderate drinking? The study found the drinkers to consume about 14 to 21 units of alcohol a week or a medium glass of wine a night. The study is still in its early stages, and the researchers have still not found enough evidence to confirm how often you should be drinking.