A new study conducted by researchers at Wellesley College revealed that even moderate drinking has a significant negative effect on brain volume, increasing the risk of dementia and problems with thinking, learning and memory, the CanWest News Service reported Oct. 13.

Researchers at the Massachusetts school took MRIs of the brains of nearly 2,000 adults and found a "significant negative linear relationship" between the amount of alcohol consumed and total cerebral brain volume. Participants were categorized as abstainers, former drinkers, and low (one to seven drinks per week), moderate (eight to 14) or high (more than 14) drinkers.

As drinking increased, brain volume declined .25 percent per category -- significantly more than the .19 percent expected as a result of the natural aging process. "So this was like adding one to two years to your normal decline in brain volume," said Carol Ann Paul, lead author of the study.

Women experienced greater declines in brain volume than men at every level of alcohol consumption, researchers found. The differences could be due to biological factors, as women "are more sensitive to alcohol, they don't weigh as much and they metabolize alcohol differently," Paul said, adding that "the take-home message is, discretion in all ways. Moderation in everything that you do."

The report appeared in the October 2008 issue of the Archives of Neurology.