DO you enjoy a tipple or two in the evening, whether a crate of copas or a bottle of vino?
If so, you could be putting yourself at a greater risk of a deadly, debilitating stroke.
That’s according to researchers in the US, who say heavy boozing is linked to earlier and more severe bleeds on the brain, known as intracerebral hemorrhages.
They found that heavy drinkers – people who have three or more alcoholic drinks per day – developed a stroke on average eleven years earlier than those who drank less.
The strokes they experienced were also larger and more difficult to control.
The study, undertaken by the Mass General Brigham, a not-for-profit health system affiliated with Harvard Medical School, was published in the journal Neurology last week.
Researchers looked at over 1,600 patients with brain bleeds who were treated at Massachusetts General Hospital between 2003 and 2019.
They studied CT and MRI scans and recorded alcohol use, whether given by the patient, a friend or a family member.
People who drank heavily were on average aged 64, eleven years younger than those who drank less, while the bleeds they suffered were around 70 per cent bigger.
Heavy boozers were also twice as likely to have a bleed deep inside the brain, or one that spread into the brain’s fluid-filled spaces.
They had lower platelet counts and higher blood pressure when arriving at hospital, and were more likely to show evidence of damage to tiny blood vessels in the brain, which is linked to dementia and memory loss.
“We now know that heavy drinking leads to larger, earlier brain bleeds,” said Edip Gurol, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study.
“Minimising or stopping alcohol use is an important step to lower that risk. Even for people at relatively low brain-bleeding risk, limiting alcohol consumption to no more than three drinks per week may be an effective measure to protect against all types of stroke and to preserve both brain and cardiovascular health.”
But there could be some good news for those who enjoy a drink or three.
According to a sociology professor from Norway, heavy drinking at a young age is linked to improved job prospects.
In his book The Beauty and Pain of Drugs, Willy Pedersen of the University of Oslo says that drinking helps to break down social inhibitions, which in turn helps to advance young adults’ careers.
Pedersen and his colleagues spent almost two decades tracking the boozing habits of more than 3,000 young Norwegians from the age of 13 to 31.
They found that those who had heavy drinking sessions in their late teens and twenties went on to have higher levels of education and income compared to those who went teetotal or drank very little.
“It’s obviously not the fact that you drink alcohol, that it sort of comes into your body and does something with your brain,” Pedersen said. “The most likely explanation is that all alcohol is a kind of marker of sociality and that habit comes with some types of benefits.”
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