Brenna Cooper
A top doctor has revealed the 'big lie' which people often tell themselves about drinking alcohol.
Let's be honest, alcohol consumption is a huge part of our society. According to statistics form Drink Aware, around 48% percent of people over the age of 16 in the UK like to kick back and relax with a drink of their favourite tipple, whereas 19% of adults practice sobriety.
By now we're all aware that binge drinking and spending your weekends getting absolutely leathered is not good for your wellbeing. But what about enjoying the occasional drink every now and again, surely that's not too bad for us in the long run?
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Unfortunately not. As with the vast majority of things in life, everything that we enjoy inevitably turns out to be bad for us.
Here to explain why even the occasional pint or single glass of wine is bad for us brain specialist Dr Daniel Amen, who often makes TikTok videos spreading awareness about the dangers of drinking culture.
"The lie, the big lie is that I should drink because one or two glasses of alcohol are good for me," he began.
Amen noted the existence of studies which claim moderate drinking can be beneficial - such as research linking low red wine consumption to a reduced risk of heart disease - however he went on to claim these were backed by the 'alcohol industry' and that he believed the findings to be a 'lie'.
Referencing his own studies on the human brain, Amen added: "People who drink have a smaller brain and when it comes to the brain, size matters."
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He then went on to discuss the relationship between drinking and brain function, adding that people who consume alcohol are more likely to have 'disruptive' white matter.
White matter is a term for the deeper brain tissues which contain nerves which connect different areas of our brain, allowing them to communicate which each other.
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"People who drink, even a little bit, have more disrupted communication [in their brain]," he explained.
This isn't the first time where Dr Amen has spoken about the effects drinking can have on the brains white matter, explaining in a video from last year that drinking alcohol is like 'blowing up' the connections in your brain.
Dr Amen's claims are also backed up by a recent study from the World Health Organisation (WHO) which revealed there is no level of alcohol consumption which is safe for our health.
"It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage," Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges said of the research.