How Your Brain Could Be Paying The Price For Drinking (Even Moderately)

You tell yourself it’s just a drink or two after work to relax, at dinner with friends, maybe a few more on the weekend. It doesn’t feel excessive. It feels normal. But what if those “normal” habits are quietly damaging your brain in ways you can’t feel until it’s too late? 

A groundbreaking new study analyzed nearly 2,000 brains and uncovered what’s really happening behind the scenes. The findings weren’t just surprising, they were sobering.

Alcohol and Health: What We Know So Far

The World Health Organization (WHO), a group that studies health all around the world, says that drinking alcohol is a big cause of over 200 different illnesses and injuries. In fact, alcohol causes about 5 out of every 100 deaths worldwide, which adds up to around 3 million deaths each year⁽¹⁾.

Recently, the WHO made it clear: no amount of alcohol is completely safe. Even a little can affect your health.

When we look around the world, the way people drink alcohol is changing. Between 1997 and 2009, in poorer and middle-income countries (called LMICs), alcohol use grew about 2.8% each year. In richer, high-income countries (called HICs), it only grew about 1.1%. That’s like two different plants: one growing twice as fast as the other! One big reason for this is that alcohol companies are now focusing on selling more in LMICs. 

For example, in Brazil, the number of adults who drank alcohol went up from 26.5% in 2013 to 30.0% in 2019⁽²⁾.

What About Alcohol and the Brain?

Even though alcohol clearly harms the body in many ways, its effects on the brain, especially when it comes to memory problems like dementia, are less clear. Some studies found that drinking a small amount of alcohol might actually help keep the brain sharp⁽³⁾.

Other studies found no connection at all between alcohol and memory loss, so scientists are still trying to figure it out.

When scientists use special brain scans, they sometimes see that alcohol might cause certain proteins, like β-amyloid (Aβ) (which are linked to Alzheimer’s disease), to build up⁽⁴⁾.

But other times, they don't find any difference between drinkers and non-drinkers⁽⁵⁾. 

In fact, only one study looked closely at real brain tissue from people after they died, and it didn’t find a strong connection between alcohol and signs of brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, stroke damage, or Parkinson’s disease. However, that study only included 108 people, mostly middle-aged Europeans. That’s a very small and specific group, like trying to guess the whole world's favorite food by only asking a few dozen people from one town.

Why This Study Is Different

Most of the earlier research happened in rich countries and mainly used brain scans, which can miss many of the small changes that happen in the brain with diseases like dementia. This study wanted to do something different: they looked at real brain samples from a large, diverse group of people in Brazil, a middle-income country. By doing this, they hoped to better understand how drinking alcohol might really affect the brain, and if what we know from other studies truly applies to different kinds of people around the world⁽⁶⁾.

What This Study Found About Alcohol and the Brain

In a big study with 1,781 people from Brazil, scientists looked closely at their brains after death to see how drinking alcohol might have affected them. 

Here’s what they found:

• People who drank a lot of alcohol, or used to drink a lot in the past were more likely to have something called neurofibrillary tangles in their brains. These are twisted-up pieces of protein that show up in diseases like Alzheimer’s. Imagine wires inside your brain getting tangled up, that’s kind of what these tangles are like, and they can interfere with how your brain works.
• People who drank a moderate amount, a lot, or used to drink a lot, were more likely to have damage to the small blood vessels in their brain. This damage is called hyaline arteriolosclerosis. Think of it like your brain’s tiny garden hoses getting stiff and clogged. When those little hoses can’t carry blood properly, it’s bad news for your brain cells.

The researchers compared all of this to people who never drank alcohol, and the differences were clear: more drinking meant more brain trouble.

Why Heavy Drinkers Might Seem Healthier, But Really Aren’t

In this study, they noticed something interesting, and a little tricky to understand at first. People who drank a lot of alcohol (aka 'heavy drinkers') died about 13 years earlier than people who didn’t drink at all. 

When their health records were examined; it seemed like heavy drinkers had fewer health problems like high blood pressure, strokes, and brain damage.

But here’s the catch: they didn’t live long enough to get those problems.

That’s a potential theory with heavy drinkers in this study. Because they died earlier, their bodies didn’t have the chance to develop long-term diseases that may have shown up later in life. This is what scientists call “survival bias.” 

So even though it might look like heavy drinkers had fewer health problems, it’s only because they didn’t live long enough to show them.

How Alcohol Might Hurt the Brain’s Thinking Power

In this study, they found a clue about how alcohol might damage the brain and cause thinking problems. The brain is a fuel guzzler, so healthy blood and oxygen networks are necessary to ensure it functions properly.

Here’s what was learned from this study:

• Drinking alcohol can damage the brain’s tiny blood vessels. These are the super small tubes that carry blood deep into the brain, like tiny garden hoses keeping your brain watered and healthy.
• When someone drinks too much, these tiny hoses can get clogged and stiff, a condition called hyaline arteriolosclerosis. (hard gunk building up in narrow pipes.)
• Once these vessels are damaged, parts of the brain don’t get the blood and oxygen they need, and that can lead to cognitive problems like memory trouble, slower thinking, or confusion.

So, in simple terms:
 Alcohol consumption leads to damaged brain vessels, damaged brain vessels leads to a brain doesn’t work as well. Which is why it is important to consider these factors in relation to past and present daily, weekly, and/or even monthly habits.

How Heavy Drinking May Tangle Up the Brain

This study found something important about how drinking a lot of alcohol may hurt the brain, especially when it comes to memory and thinking. Inside the brain, there are things called neurofibrillary tangles. These are twisted strands of protein that build up and get in the way of brain cells working properly. (Like knots in wires that mess up how efficiently electrical signals move.)

Here’s what was discovered from this study:

• People who drink heavily now or used to drink heavily had more of these brain tangles than people who never drank.

The more they drank, the more tangles were found.

This matches what scientists have seen in animal studies and in certain brain fluid tests. But not everyone agrees. One earlier study, which also looked at human brains after death, didn’t find the same link between drinking and tangles. That shows how science is always learning and testing ideas.

Still, results from this study indicate that heavy drinking could lead to neurofibrillary tangles (tangled-up brain wiring), which may increase the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Brain mass and former heavy drinking: The study found reduced brain mass specifically in former heavy drinkers with no differences in moderate and heavy drinkers compared with those who never drank alcohol. This discrepancy may be attributed to the prolonged duration of alcohol consumption among former drinkers, which could lead to more extensive brain atrophy.

Is a Little Alcohol Good for Your Brain? Not So Fast.

Some people believe that drinking small amounts of alcohol, like a glass of wine here and there, might help keep your brain sharp as you get older. But scientists don’t all agree.

It’s a bit like the question: “Is chocolate healthy?” Some studies say yes, others say no, and it depends on how much, how often, and who you ask.

In the past, some studies found that moderate drinkers (people who drink a little, but not a lot) didn’t lose their memory as quickly as people who never drank at all. But other studies found no difference at all between people who drank moderately and those who didn’t drink at all.

This study indicates that moderate drinking didn’t seem to help the brain.

There was no clear connection between drinking a little alcohol and having better memory or thinking skills. So, for now, the idea that “a little alcohol is good for your brain” is still up for debate for some people. For others the question is cut and dry.

What This Study Couldn’t Tell Us (and Why That Matters)

Even though this study found some important clues about how alcohol might affect the brain, there are a few things that couldn’t be figured out, and it’s important to be honest about those limits.

It can’t be stated for sure that alcohol caused brain problems.
 That’s because this study was like a snapshot, it showed what things looked like at one moment in time, but not how they changed over time. It’s like looking at a single photo and trying to guess what happened before or after, we just can’t know for sure.

It didn’t track people while they were alive.

It didn’t have long-term information about how long people had been drinking or how their thinking skills changed over time. That would be like trying to understand a movie by only seeing the ending, you miss a lot of important stuff.

The study relied on people who knew the participants to tell us about their lives.
 Most of the information came from family members or caregivers. That’s helpful, but it’s not always 100% accurate. 

This study didn’t check for vitamin deficiencies.

People who drink a lot of alcohol often have important vitamin deficiencies. These missing vitamins can also hurt the brain, so not checking for them leaves out a large piece of the puzzle.

So, while this study gives us some strong hints, there’s always more to learn to see the full picture.

What This Study Taught Us About Alcohol and the Brain

A group of scientists in Brazil studied the brains of people after they died to learn how drinking alcohol might affect brain health and thinking skills. Their findings give us new and important clues about how alcohol can cause brain problems.

Here’s what they discovered:

• People who drank a lot of alcohol, or used to drink a lot, were more likely to have neurofibrillary tangles, twisted clumps inside brain cells that can make it harder for the brain to work.
• People who drank moderate to heavy amounts (even if they stopped later) were also more likely to have hyaline arteriolosclerosis, a condition where the tiny blood vessels in the brain get clogged and stiff.
• One big idea in this study is that damaged blood vessels from alcohol might be the “middleman” causing thinking and memory problems, especially in people who used to drink heavily.

The study also pointed out some concerns:

Because it only looked at people after they died, it’s hard to say for sure if alcohol caused the brain problems, we’re only seeing the final result, not the whole story.

The scientists didn’t have full info about how long or how much people drank, or whether they were missing important vitamins that can also affect the brain.

Even with those limits, this study reminds us that alcohol can hurt the brain in serious ways, and that more research, especially in different countries and communities, is needed to fully understand the risks.

Ready to Support Your Brain?

The science is clear: protecting your brain isn’t something to think about later. No matter past choices there are many things you can do now to improve how your brain works. And the choices you make today, what you consume, how you recover, how you fuel your mind and body, all lay the foundation for how well your brain performs as you age.

That’s why we created The Ultimate Brain Stack. 

It's a combination of ATP-Fusion (for clean cellular energy and creatine-powered neuroprotection) and FOCUSED-AF (our advanced brain and focus support formula designed for mental clarity, memory, and sharp thinking).

If you care about staying mentally sharp, protecting your cognitive health, and showing up with real focus, this stack is formulated with providing support your brain deserves in mind.

References:
    1.    WHO: Alcohol. 2024
    2.    Freitas MG, Stopa SR, Silva END: Consumption of alcoholic beverages in Brazil: estimation of prevalence ratios - 2013 and 2019. Rev Saude Publica 57:17, 2023
    3.    Espeland MA, Gu L, Masaki KH, et al: Association between reported alcohol intake and cognition: results from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study. Am J Epidemiol 161:228-38, 2005
    4.    Kim JW, Byun MS, Yi D, et al: Association of moderate alcohol intake with in vivo amyloid-beta deposition in human brain: A cross-sectional study. PLoS Med 17:e1003022, 2020
    5.    Flanigan MR, Royse SK, Cenkner DP, et al: Imaging beta-amyloid (Abeta) burden in the brains of middle-aged individuals with alcohol-use disorders: a [(11)C]PIB PET study. Transl Psychiatry 11:257, 2021
    6.    Justo AFO, Paradela R, Gomes Goncalves N, et al: Association Between Alcohol Consumption, Cognitive Abilities, and Neuropathologic Changes: A Population-Based Autopsy Study. Neurology 104:e213555, 2025