Heavy drinkers at higher risk of brain bleeds in old age, study finds

Heavy drinkers may experience dangerous strokes a decade earlier than people who consume less alcohol, a new study suggests.

People who regularly had three or more alcoholic drinks per day were more likely to experience intracerebral hemorrhage – a deadly type of stroke caused by bleeding in the brain – more severely and at a younger age compared with people who drank less, according to the study.

In addition to the stroke risk, heavy drinkers were more likely to show signs of cerebral small vessel disease, or damage to the small blood vessels in the brain that raises the risk of dementia.

“Our findings suggest that [heavy drinking] doesn’t just increase the severity of a bleeding stroke, it may also accelerate long-term harm to the brain’s small vessels,” Dr Edip Gurol, one of the study’s authors and a stroke neurologist at Harvard University, said in a statement.

The study, which was published in the journal Neurology, included 1,600 adults with an average age of 75 who had been hospitalised for intracerebral hemorrhage. Researchers defined heavy drinkers as those who regularly had three or more drinks per week.

Heavy drinkers were aged 64 on average when they had a stroke, compared to 75 among people who drank less alcohol. Their brain bleeds were also 70 per cent larger on average, the study found.

Medical tests showed that heavy drinkers also had lower blood platelet counts and higher blood pressure when they were hospitalised, which could affect both the severity of their strokes and their recovery.

The study has some limitations, notably that it analysed patient outcomes at a single point in time rather than tracking people over time. The researchers also didn’t know how much people drank over their lifetimes, and they may have misreported their drinking habits.

Even so, the researchers said the findings indicate that curbing alcohol intake could help promote healthy ageing and brain health.

“Reducing heavy alcohol use may not only lower a person’s risk of bleeding stroke, it may also slow the progression of cerebral small vessel disease, which in turn may reduce the chances of having another stroke, cognitive decline, and long-term disability,” Gurol said.

“Promoting lifestyle changes like quitting alcohol should be part of stroke prevention efforts, especially for those at higher risk,” he said.