Alcohol consumption is a part of many societal and cultural practices, such as work happy hours, major milestone celebrations, and other recreational activities. While most of us can indulge in alcohol use without causing harm to ourselves or others, some of us engage in the harmful use of alcohol. The normal functioning of our brain is based on a balance of chemicals called neurotransmitters. When we consume alcohol, our brain chemistry changes to compensate for these chemical imbalances. Adaptation to long-term alcohol exposure can lead to alcohol dependence (ALC), which exhibits itself with symptoms such as cravings, irritability, and anxiety.
ALC, a disorder where an individual is physically or psychologically dependent on alcohol, is a problem that affects approximately 30% of people at some point in their lifetimes. Chronic diseases associated with excessive alcohol use include cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases, cancers, and mental disorders. Studies have shown that excessive alcohol use can lead to changes in gene expression; scientists are trying to understand how this relates to our propensity to develop alcohol-related chronic diseases.
Recently, scientists have come up with a technique to measure aging at a molecular level. By measuring DNA methylation levels, scientists can predict the epigenetic age of our bodies’ tissues. Studying these changes can give us insight into how lifestyle choices can affect the aging process. In this study, scientists explored the molecular effects of drinking moderate or excessive amounts of alcohol–namely, they looked to see if alcohol consumption causes tissues most commonly affected by alcohol-related disorders to experience accelerated aging effects. Scientists calculated the epigenetic ages of the blood, liver, and brain tissue samples from participants with ALC and compared them to the epigenetic ages of the blood, liver, and brain tissue samples from participants without ALC.
What they found was interesting. In blood and liver, scientists observed an overall positive correlation between ALC and accelerated aging effects, meaning that participants with ALC had blood and liver tissues that were biologically older than the blood and liver tissues of participants without ALC. In brain tissue, however, the scientists observed the opposite–participants with ALC or alcohol abuse had biologically younger brains than participants without ALC or alcohol abuse. The scientists attributed this surprising finding to the fact that the majority of participants in the brain tissue study were diagnosed with alcohol abuse (instead of ALC), which is less severe than ALC. Perhaps in this scenario, the epigenetic age of the brain tissue is more representative of studies that show beneficial aging effects of moderate alcohol consumption.
Overall, this study suggests that excessive alcohol consumption has accelerated aging effects in certain tissues of the body. In blood and liver tissues, scientists showed that ALC may be correlated with accelerated epigenetic age. Further studies need to be done to verify the results presented in this study because of the variation between sample set participants, and additional studies with participants with actual ALC are required to look at accelerated aging effects of ALC on the brain. Despite these limitations, this study highlights the importance of making lifestyle choices that guide us towards happy and healthy lives.