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    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTHow Drinking Affects Your Dementia RiskResearchers are still investigating what alcohol does to the brain, and what (if any) amount is safe.Share full articleCredit...Ricardo TomasBy Dana G. SmithSept. 25, 2026Leer en espa\u00f1olIn 2003, a study published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association reported that having two or more alcoholic beverages per day was associated with a 22 percent increased risk of dementia. But people who drank less than that had up to a 54 percent lower risk, compared with people who didn\u2019t drink at all.\u201cI remember reading that JAMA paper 20-some odd years ago and thinking, I really ought to try and have a glass of wine every day,\u201d said Dr. Joel Gelernter, a professor of psychiatry, genetics and neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine.That study wasn\u2019t the only one to suggest that moderate alcohol consumption was beneficial for the brain: Observational research has consistently shown that light-to-moderate drinkers have a lower risk of dementia compared with non-drinkers.\u201cThis idea of the J-shaped curve was really pretty darn reproducible in many studies,\u201d said Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. But, she added, \u201cI think more recently, people have debunked that J.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIndeed, researchers have come to understand that the health benefits attributed to a daily glass of wine are largely a mirage. People who drink in moderation tend to have more advantages in life than people who abstain (such as having higher socioeconomic status, more years of education and generally better health), and experts think that explains their lower risk for dementia, not the alcohol itself.The evidence that heavy drinking (often defined as more than two drinks a day) can damage the brain and increase the risk of dementia has also continued to accumulate. But experts are still learning exactly how it happens, and at what amount harms start to occur.Heavy Drinking and the BrainExperts have a few theories about how chronic excessive alcohol use hurts the brain. Research, much of it conducted on animals and human cells in a lab, indicates that alcohol can induce oxidative stress in the brain and disrupt the brain\u2019s immune system, triggering harmful inflammation. Both oxidative stress and inflammation are associated with dementia.Alcohol affects the brain indirectly, too. Heavy drinkers have an increased risk of high blood pressure and stroke, and blood vessel damage is a key contributor to vascular dementia. People who drink a lot also tend to have other unhealthy habits that can harm the brain, like smoking or a poor diet.At the most extreme, some people with alcohol use disorder develop Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a form of dementia caused by a severe thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency stemming from chronic heavy alcohol use.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cThere\u2019s multiple different pathways\u201d through which alcohol can damage the brain, said Louise Mewton, an associate professor studying alcohol use at the University of Sydney. And, she added, \u201cit may be all of these acting at once. The literature certainly is not settled.\u201dModerate Drinking and the BrainWith lower levels of alcohol consumption, it\u2019s less clear when and how the brain is affected. And because most of the studies on people\u2019s drinking habits find that misleading J-curve, scientists have had to get creative with their research methods.A few studies looking at brain volume have indicated that damage may happen even with light-to-moderate drinking. One large 2022 study from the United Kingdom found that having an average of eight drinks a week was associated with slightly smaller brain volume than having an average of four per week. And the greater the alcohol consumption, the smaller the brain.Dr. Charlies DeCarli, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Davis, said there\u2019s no evidence that moderate amounts of alcohol directly harm neurons. \u201cWhat these newer studies indicate, though, is that there is some relationship\u201d between small doses of alcohol and the brain.But, he added, \u201cBrain volume does not necessarily translate directly into cognitive performance.\u201dOther research suggests that light-to-moderate drinking may be associated with some loss in cognitive functioning, even if it doesn\u2019t qualify as dementia. Another U.K. study found that people who had as little as four drinks a week experienced a greater decline in language abilities over the course of 30 years compared with people who were abstinent. Again, the more people drank, the worse their cognition got.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTNewer research looking at genetic predisposition to drinking alcohol has also produced sobering results. A study published in January found that when researchers used people\u2019s self-reported drinking habits to assess dementia risk, the typical J-curve emerged. But when they repeated the analysis using genes that predict drinking behavior (whether someone is genetically more likely to drink a lot, a little or not at all), dementia risk increased even at low levels of predicted alcohol consumption.Dr. Gelernter, who was involved in the genetics study, said he now thinks there is a linear relationship between alcohol consumption and risk for cognitive decline. But the research hasn\u2019t prompted him to abstain entirely. \u201cI certainly no longer try to have a glass of wine every day, but I haven\u2019t stopped,\u201d he said. Though \u201cit was much nicer when we said, \u2018I\u2019m doing it for my health,\u2019\u201d he added.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-25T09:00:03+00:00",
    "author_name": "Dana G. Smith",
    "site_name": "The New York Times",
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    "ai_headline": "How Drinking Affects Your Dementia Risk",
    "ai_simplified_title": "Researchers Investigate Alcohol's Impact on Dementia Risk",
    "ai_excerpt": "New research challenges the long-held belief that moderate alcohol consumption is beneficial for brain health, suggesting even light drinking may increase dementia risk. Experts are still investigating how alcohol affects the brain and at what levels harm occurs.",
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