How much extra drinking and smoking does your brain age?


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Rido81

Studies have shown that even moderate amounts of alcohol can have harmful effects on the body, and previous studies have shown that smoking can also affect the brain . On the other hand, researchers did not know the specific content such as 'how much drinking and smoking causes brain aging', and researchers investigated how smoking and drinking increase brain age.

Association of relative brain age with tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, and genetic variants | Scientific Reports
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56089-4

Health: Daily smoking and drinking may be associated with advanced brain age | EurekAlert! Science News
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/sr-hds012420.php

Daily smoking and drinking may be associated with advanced brain age
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-01-daily-advanced-brain-age.html

Alcohol and the brain: Scientists quantify how much a gram ages the mind
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/alcohol-and-the-brain-how-much-booze-ages-the-mind

Previous studies have shown that excessive smoking and drinking can damage certain parts of the brain, but it is not clear how smoking and drinking actually relate to brain age. did. Arthur W. Toga , a neuroscientist at the Keck Medical School at the University of Southern California, and his team, clarified this by studying machine learning and MRI in 17,308 subjects between the ages of 45 and 81. The survey was conducted using scans. Subject data was collected from UK Biobank and other sources, and the MRI scan data for each individual was compared with the average brain scan results of the same age.


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Rawpixel

The researchers first found that the brains of 11,651 people who smoke almost every day are relatively 'older' than those who smoke no or smoke less frequently. There is an international smoking index called 'Pack-years', and Pack-years is calculated as '(number of smokers per day / 20 bottles) x years of smoking', but every time 1 Pack-year increases The relative brain age was shown to increase by 0.03 years. In other words, a person who has been smoking one box a day for 30 years has a relative brain age of 0.9 years higher.

And data from 11,600 people who have a drinking habit also showed that those who drink daily have a higher relative brain age than those who do not drink or drink less. A one-gram increase in alcohol consumption per day would increase relative brain age by 0.02. If the alcohol consumption per day is 20g (about 1 go of sake), the relative brain age will be 0.4 years higher.


by sonyakamoz

The study shows that even people who smoke and drink daily have a relatively modest effect on brain age. On the other hand, it is not known how these effects will affect human quality of life . Toga did not neglect this effect, saying, 'The 0.4-year-old difference is statistically significant. We believe that daily alcohol consumption could be harmful to the brain. I argue. '

In addition, researchers said the need for a larger sample to be investigated, as various factors other than smoking and drinking influence brain age.

in Science, Posted by darkhorse_log