Beware! Excessive Boozing May Make You Age Fast, Warn Experts

Lots have been said and researched about the harmful effects of excessive alcohol consumption by experts from across the globe. Regular alcohol consumption poses a severe threat to our health and may also make one susceptible to depression. A recently published study links excessive boozing with accelerated ageing. Experts from the Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine have found a link between heavy drinking and ageing. It was found that patients who consumed excessive alcohol in their adult life showed reduction in the length of their Telomeres - a marker of ageing. Therefore, these patients were also more susceptible to age-related ailments such as Alzheimer's, heart ailments, dementia among others.Telomere loss happens every time a cell replicates, this leads to shortened telomere over the span of time. Though telomeres loss and shortening can happen owing to various reasons, experts found alcohol dependence to be the primary cause in the patients that were investigated. Heavy drinking was therefore found to have triggered biological aging at a cellular level in the patients examined.Previously, excessive drinking has also been linked to exposing a person to the risk of cardiovascular ailments."There is growing evidence that moderate alcohol intake may be a risk factor for atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disturbance in the world, but the mechanism by which alcohol may lead to atrial fibrillation is unknown," Gregory Marcus, researcher at the University of California, San Francisco was quoted by IANS.A recently published study by the American Heart Association states that drinking more than 4 drinks in a day and repeating the pattern to form a habit can have severe health consequences. Even moderate drinking is now believed to have grave effects on human health including cognitive decline and brain damage. Experts revealed that those who consumed 14-to-21 drinks a week for decades were up to two to three times more susceptible to suffer from brain damage.Inputs from IANS