Your Brain and Alcohol

Research does not support past advice that a little drinking is better for brain health than none

Sonya Collins

Updated October 29, 2025

Igor Normann/Shutterstock

You know you shouldn’t drink too much alcohol, but you’ve probably heard that one or two drinks a day (especially wine) is no big deal and may even have health benefits. Right? Not so fast.

“There’s always been a story that moderate drinking, particularly red wine, might be good … for you or good for your heart. It’s quite controversial, and a lot of people dispute that now,” says Anya Topiwala, a senior clinical researcher in the department of population health at the University of Oxford in England.

A growing body of research, including Topiwala’s, suggests not only that moderate drinking may not be beneficial but that it could, in fact, do harm. These studies suggest that no amount of alcohol is good for your brain.

AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH), an independent collaborative of scientists, health professionals, scholars and policy experts convened by AARP, reviewed the existing research and, in 2018, published its findings that even moderate amounts of alcohol may harm the brain.

“One theory that I have, and others as well, is that if you look at the kind of people drinking moderate amounts of red wine, they tend to be better educated, high-income individuals that probably do better on memory tests to start with,” Topiwala says. “They may also be doing all sorts of other healthy things, like watching their diet, exercising and looking after their medical health in general.”

Some people who have just a glass of wine each night do so as a part of the Mediterranean and MIND diets, which allow for that. Both these eating plans emphasize nutrients that have proven positive effects on brain health. So it may be the diet rather than the daily glass of wine that is good for the brain.

Could even a little alcohol do harm?

In a new study, Topiwala and colleagues analyzed data from more than 559,559 adults ages 56 to 72 and concluded there is no protective effect of alcohol at any level and that even low intake may increase dementia risk. In the analysis, a tripling of weekly alcohol, even from one to three drinks per week, raised dementia risk by 15 percent.

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An earlier study co-authored by Topiwala looked at the drinking patterns of close to 21,000 adults ages 40 to 69. The results, published in PLOS Medicine in 2022, found that any drinking over 56 grams a week — that’s just under two ounces — was linked to worse cognitive function over time. Moderate drinking could also contribute to a loss of brain mass. A research team reviewed alcohol intake and brain structure images from 36,678 healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank and reported their findings in Nature Communications in 2022: Those who drank an average of one to two drinks a day had smaller brain volume than abstainers.

Recent studies aren’t only calling into question the proported benefits of drinking for brain health. Evidence that it’s good for the heart may be weak, too.

In a study of 371,463 adults, average age 57, researchers compared the overall health of moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers and teetotallers. The scientists concluded, in 2022 in JAMA Network Open, that there is no amount of drinking, however little, that benefits heart health. It was findings like this that led the WHO to take the position in 2023 that “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for health.”

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking a harder line on drinking, too. The agency notes that past research that might have suggested moderate drinking was healthier than not drinking is now outweighed by newer evidence that no amount of drinking brings health benefits.

Ultimately, whether or not you choose to drink is “a very personal decision,” Topiwala says. “Everyone accepts a different level of risk,” she says, “but I want people to know this is a myth that drinking is good for your brain health.”