alcohol drinking
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Drinking Any Amount of Alcohol Causes Brain Damage, Study Finds the Damage Is Already Done (So Drink Up and Enjoy What’s Left, Dummy)

Talk about a buzzkill. A new study from the University of Oxford has declared that there is no “safe” level of alcohol consumption when it comes to brain health.

Researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing the self-reported alcohol consumption of around 25,000 UK residents and measuring the amount of gray matter in their brains via scans. The more alcohol consumed, the less gray matter in the drinker’s brain and the poorer their performance on memory tests. (Gray matter is the area of the brain where information is processed.) It didn’t matter one drop if the subject’s drink of choice was beer, wine, or liquor; the effect was the same.

“So many people drink ‘moderately,’ and think this is either harmless or even protective,” Anya Topiwala, a senior clinical researcher at Oxford, told CNN. “As we have yet to find a ‘cure’ for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, knowing about factors that can prevent brain harm is important for public health.”

So, assuming you’ve been drinking for at least as long as you’ve been legally allowed, you’re already screwed. You could take this study as a big flashing warning sign to quite cold turkey now – or you could pour yourself another drink because let’s face it: the damage is already done.

Here’s to you, fellow drinkers, getting dumber and dumber with each swig. Look on the bright side: it sounds like we won’t remember all the stupid things we did while drunk anyway.

Cover Photo: g-stockstudio (Getty Images)

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