Any amount of alcohol damages brain: UK Study  

In an observational study, researchers from the University of Oxford found that any amount of drinking has an effect on the grey matters of the human brain. 

They studied the relationship between the self-reported alcohol intake of some 25,000 people in the UK and their brain scans.

However, their findings have not yet been peer-reviewed, reports CNN. 

Lead Author of the study Anya Topiwala, a senior clinical researcher at Oxford, said "The more people drank, the less the volume of their grey matter." 

"Brain volume reduces with age and more severely with dementia. Smaller brain volume also predicts worse performance on memory testing," she explained.

"Whilst alcohol only made a small contribution to this (0.8%), it was a greater contribution than other modifiable risk factors," she said. 

The team also found that there was no "safe" level of drinking -- meaning that consuming any amount of alcohol was worse than not drinking it.

However, certain characteristics, such as high blood pressure, obesity or binge drinking, could put people at higher risk, researchers added.

"As we have yet to find a 'cure' for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, knowing about factors that can prevent brain harm is important for public health," Topiwala added.

Alcohol was the leading risk factor for disease and premature death in men and women between the ages of 15 and 49 worldwide in 2016, accounting for nearly one in 10 deaths, according to a study published in The Lancet in 2018.