A major new study out of Brazil has revealed alarming evidence that heavy drinking can leave a lifelong mark on the brain. Researchers at the University of São Paulo analyzed the brains of 1,781 people, comparing autopsy findings with detailed lifetime drinking histories. The results were stark: heavy drinkers were 133% more likely to have vascular brain lesions, damage to small blood vessels, compared to lifelong abstainers. Even those who had quit heavy drinking years before were 89% more likely to show this kind of brain injury. The dangers don’t end there. The study found that heavy drinkers had a 41% higher chance of developing tau protein tangles, a classic hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, while former heavy drinkers had a 31% higher risk. Perhaps most sobering, people with a history of heavy alcohol use died on average 13 years earlier than those who never drank. The researchers also noted lower brain mass-to-height ratios and more reported memory and cognitive problems in these groups, even if some effects weren’t as clear in living moderate or heavy drinkers. While the study relied partly on family reporting for drinking habits and couldn’t conclusively prove that alcohol alone caused all the brain damage, it adds substantial weight to the list of reasons for caution. The risks of drinking, especially heavy or sustained use, may last long after the last drink is poured. 📚 Source: University of São Paulo, Brazil (2025) | Study PMID: 40203226

🧠 A new brain scan can tell you how fast your aging A single brain scan can reveal how fast you're aging and might even predict your risk of dementia and other health problems later in life, according to new research. Scientists have created a tool called DunedinPACNI that uses brain scans taken in midlife to measure biological aging, the wear and tear on your body that doesn’t always match your actual age. This tool was built using data from over 1,000 people born in the early 1970s in New Zealand, whose health has been tracked for decades. DunedinPACNI looks at 99 brain features, like the thickness of the cerebral cortex and the volume of gray matter, to estimate how quickly someone is aging. When tested on data from over 50,000 people, it accurately predicted risks of conditions like dementia and heart disease. The researchers say this approach works as well as or better than other biological age measures and applies across different groups of people. The idea is that if someone is shown to be aging faster than their chronological age, they could make lifestyle changes, like improving diet and exercise, years before major health issues appear. The team sees this as a way to identify dementia risk earlier, which is critical as rates of Alzheimer’s and related diseases rise globally. Although it’s not perfectly accurate, it shows promise as a quick, single-scan method to spot people who may need preventive care decades before symptoms show. This study was published in Nature Aging. source Whitman, E.T., Elliott, M.L., Knodt, A.R. et al. DunedinPACNI estimates the longitudinal Pace of Aging from a single brain image to track health and disease. Nat Aging (2025).