[HN Gopher] Associations between alcohol consumption and gray an... ___________________________________________________________________ Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes Author : Bhilai Score : 50 points Date : 2022-11-01 17:58 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.nature.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com) | vkou wrote: | > Here, we show that the negative associations between alcohol | intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure are already | apparent in individuals consuming an average of only one to two | DAUs (daily alcohol units), and become stronger as alcohol intake | increases. | | It should be noted that a single 'weak' 5% beer is 1.65 DAUs. | metadat wrote: | Does this mean no more megapints? | | Seriously though, why doesn't the unit of 1 DAU correspond with | any existing commercial form factors? | | A single 12oz 5% beer would be a more helpful starting point. | metadat wrote: | Hmm.. maybe better to avoid alcohol completely, or stick to other | less harmful recreational drugs and pastimes? | ramesh31 wrote: | This is pretty much why I became a nondrinker. Alcohol makes | you dumb. It impairs thinking, and thinking is the most | pleasurable thing in the world. | pstuart wrote: | > Alcohol makes you dumb | | So does canabis (albeit in a rather creative way). I love the | stuff but it's definitely better in smaller and infrequent | doses. | throwayyy479087 wrote: | Ehhh - having a whiskey on a porch in the mountains in the | fall is up there | christophilus wrote: | Throw in a cigar or pipe, and it's my favorite guilty | pleasure. | yrgulation wrote: | Yup i'm done as one might infer from my comment history. | rosywoozlechan wrote: | it's a cross-sectional study and thus cannot be used to infer | causality, so it doesn't warrant behavioral changes? | commandlinefan wrote: | Figure 3 seems to suggest that as long as you average < 1 | drink/day, you're doing (very very slightly) better than | somebody who averages 0. | gruez wrote: | The standard response to that is 0 drinks per day includes | abstainers who might be former alcoholics and therefore might | be dragging the average down. Some of the data tables have a | separate category for "excluding abstainers", but there's no | line graph that has abstainers excluded. | theGnuMe wrote: | I would imagine they controlled for that or it's | insignificant. | aplusbi wrote: | Doesn't sound like they controlled for it or even | considered it. While they did have a control group that | excluded non-drinkers and heavy drinkers, that was solely | to control for bias at the extreme ends, and not to | control for sober alcoholics or health problems that | preclude drinking. | | > Our analyses comprise models that include two different | sets of control variables. The standard set includes | standardized age, standardized age squared standardized | height, handedness (right/left/ambidextrous; dummy- | coded), sex (female:0, male:1), current smoker status, | former light smoker, former heavy smoker, and | standardized Townsend index of social deprivation | measured at the zip code level62. To control for genetic | population structure, the models also include the first | 40 genetic principal components63 and county of residence | (dummy-coded)62. A second set of extended control | variables includes all standard control variables and in | addition standardized BMI, standardized educational | attainment64, and standardized weight. To determine | whether observations at the extreme ends of the drinking | distribution bias the estimates of the relationship | between alcohol intake and IDPs, we also estimate a model | that excludes abstainers and a model that excludes heavy | drinkers (i.e., women who reported consuming more than 18 | units/week and men who consumed more than 24 units/week), | both with standard controls. | | Here they talk about the different groupings: | | > we bin participants in the following six categories | based on average alcohol intake: (1) abstainers, (2) | individuals who drank less than one unit/day, (3) | individuals who drank between one (included) and two | (excluded) units/day (recommended maximal alcohol | consumption based on the UK Chief Medical Officers "low- | risk" guidelines32), (4) individuals who drank between | two (included) and three (excluded) units/day, (5) | individuals who drank between three (included) and four | (excluded) units/day, and (6) individuals who drank at | least four units/day. | | Again no mention of sober alcoholics or health problems. | | This study: https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press- | release/large-study-c... found that while moderate | drinkers had better cardiovascular health than non- | drinkers, this was due to other lifestyle factors | associated with moderate drinking, not the drinking | itself. | Mathnerd314 wrote: | The overall conclusion of the study is "We observe negative | relationships between alcohol intake and global gray and white | matter measures". But if you look at Figure 3, it is consistent | with a J-shaped risk curve with risk equal to nondrinkers around | 16 grams ethanol per day, like the 16.9 number found for 40-64 | year old males in | https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6.... | So I would say this study adds another reason to not overdrink, | and confirms that current drinking expectations are too high, but | isn't a reason to abstain entirely. | boberoni wrote: | For reference, a single shot (1.5 fl oz of 40% alcohol) has 14g | of alcohol. | Mathnerd314 wrote: | Yeah. And it's a daily average, so you can have 3 drinks | every Saturday for example (aiming for the TMREL of 6g). I'm | not sure about the maximum per day; there was a heart disease | study that defined heavy drinking as 60g in a day,but I | haven't seen any studies specifically on drinking patterns at | this low intake. | insanitybit wrote: | Ergo, 7 shots once a week and I'm good to go! | bufferoverflow wrote: | A pint of beer is 20g. | | I used to drink socially when I was young, and I usually had | more than that. | adamredwoods wrote: | >> Alcohol intake explains 1% of the variance in global GMV and | 0.3% of the variance in global WMV across individuals beyond | all other control variables (both p < 10-16). | | Definitely shows there is some grey and white matter | reduction... but the impact doesn't seem drastic? Do I use that | 1%? Do other activities reduce my brain of 1%? I don't know the | scale of volume they use. I could be wrong. | | And looking at figure 2[1], age is also a major factor for | change in white/grey volume (which they normalize). | | [1] | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28735-5/figures/2 | idiotsecant wrote: | You have to admit the same argument in other contexts is a | little funny. Like if you were exposed to an industrial | pollutant that was shown to reduce your brain mass by 1% I | don't think many people would be saying 'do I really need | that brain material?' Obviously this is more than a little | influenced by enjoying the effects of a drug. | bergenty wrote: | I mean a pollutant has no upside. Being intoxicated has a | lot of upsides including a good time, stress relief, | community etc. | JohnJamesRambo wrote: | The old mantra of people only use X% of their brain has been | found to be hogwash. We use all of our brain, so I'd be very | worried about a poison that even takes 1%. | | > The notion that a person uses only 10 percent of their | brain is a myth. fMRI scans show that even simple activities | require almost all of the brain to be active. | | https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321060#takeaway | trh0awayman wrote: | Logical positivist vs Knight of faith, Berserker approach to life ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-11-01 23:00 UTC)