Heavy Drinking Is Only Dangerous for the Brains of Men and Not Women

Male heavy drinkers are a higher risk of developing dangerous side effects to the brain compared to women, a recent study confirms.

One of the largest studies ever conducted that looks into the long-term effect of drinking alcohol suggests that heavy drinking is directly associated to significant cognitive decline in middle-aged men. Women, on the other hand, are more protected but the reasons why this is so are unclear. The researchers involved in the study defined cognitive decline as a decrease in executive function and as deterioration in memory.

They analyzed data from the Whitehall II cohort study, which commenced in the mid-1980s with roughly 10,000 British civil servants who agreed to complete lifestyle questionnaires and undergo a physical exam at specified times during a nearly 20-year span. Results showed that middle-aged men who drank 36 grams or 1.12 fluid ounces or more alcohol a day for ten years suffered from greater memory loss and slowing of executive function compared to those who didn't.

Women, on the other hand, didn't show nearly the level of cognitive decline as men even if they consumed the same amount of alcohol or more within ten years. The reasons why this may be the case were no longer tested by the authors but they speculate that it may have something to do with hormones and estrogen. Over time, the brains of drinker in the occasional and moderate categories seemed to weather, about the same as those who either quit drinking or chose not to drink at all. The results of the study were published in the journal Neurology.