WELLESLEY, Mass., Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The more alcohol a person drinks, the smaller his or her total brain volume, increasing the risk of dementia, U.S. researchers suggest.
Carol Ann Paul of Wellesley College, Mass., and colleagues studied 1,839 adults -- average age 60 -- who were part of the Framingham Offspring Study, which began in 1971 and includes children of the original Framingham Heart Study participants and their spouses.
From 1999 to 2001, participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging and a health examination. The study subjects reported the number of alcoholic drinks they consumed per week, along with their age, sex, education, height, body mass index and Framingham Stroke Risk Profile -- which calculates stroke risk based on age, sex, blood pressure and other factors.
"Most participants reported low alcohol consumption, and men were more likely than women to be moderate or heavy drinkers," the study authors said in a statement. "There was a significant negative linear relationship between alcohol consumption and total cerebral brain volume."
The study, published in Archives of Neurology, said that although men were more likely to drink alcohol, the association between drinking and brain volume was stronger in women, perhaps due to women's smaller size and greater susceptibility to alcohol's effects.
