Just eight drinks of beer or wine a week doubles the risk of brain damage

HAVING eight or more glasses of wine or beer every week doubles the risk of brain damage compared with being teetotal, a study shows.

- By Stephen Beech

Heavy boozers regularly knocking back that amount also die an average 13 years earlier than those who never drink, according to the study.

Scientists looked at the brain tissue of 1,781 people who had an average age of 75 when they died.

They looked for signs of injury including tau tangles biomarkers associated with Alzheimer's disease as well as a brain lesions.

These areas of damaged tissue are a sign of a condition called hyaline arteriolosclerosis, which causes the small blood vessels to narrow.