[LifeStyle] Smoking and drinking daily ages the brain

[#Steeven.™]

The authors point out that other environmental and genetic factors influence brain age.

Drinking and smoking daily may be associated with modest increases in relative brain age compared to those who drink and smoke less, according to new research published in the journal 'Scientific Reports'.

This study has shown that certain lifestyle habits, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, are associated with adverse effects in specific brain regions. However, it is not clear how tobacco and alcohol use may be associated with brain age, especially when considering the entire brain.

USC researcher Stevens Hall for Neuroimaging Arthur W. Toga and colleagues at the University of Southern California used machine learning and MRI methods to identify relative brain age in 17,308 individuals aged 45 to 81 whose data were included in the Biobank of the United Kingdom. Relative brain age is the brain age of an individual based on MRI measurements, compared to the average brain age of their peers.

The authors found that in 11,651 individuals for whom information on smoking was collected, those who smoked most or every day had a higher relative brain age than those who smoked less or did not smoke.

Each group of additional years of smoking was associated with a 0.03-year increase in relative brain age. One pack year was defined as smoking one pack of cigarettes per day on average for an entire year.

In 11,600 individuals from whom information was collected on alcohol consumption behavior, those who drank alcohol most days had a higher relative brain age than those who drank less or not at all. Each additional gram of alcohol consumption per day was associated with a 0.02-year increase in relative brain age.

The authors caution that, in addition to tobacco and alcohol use, other environmental and genetic factors may be associated with brain age, so studies on larger samples are needed to further clarify these associations.