Japanese scientists find link between alcohol and ageing

A study by a group of scientists from Japan’s Kobe University has found that the more alcohol people drink, the faster they will age.

The study, presented at the 40th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Denver, found that alcoholic patients had shorted telomere lengths, making them more susceptible to age-related illnesses including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and dementia, reported Science Daily.

Telomeres are the protein caps on the ends of human chromosomes, and are related to ageing and overall health, said Naruhisa Yamaki, a clinical fellow at the Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine.

“Our study showed that alcoholic patients have a shortened telomere length, which means that heavy drinking causes biological ageing at a cellular level,” Yamaki said. “It is alcohol rather than acetaldehyde that is associated with a shortened telomere length.”

The result was revealed after Yamaki and his colleagues studied 255 participants, a mix of alcoholic patients and age-matched controls or non-alcoholics between 41 to 85 years old.

“We also found an association between telomere shortening and thiamine deficiency (TD),” the scientist explained, which is responsible for neuron impairments.

“Although how exactly TD can cause neural impairments is unclear, it is well known that oxidation stress cause telomere shortening and, thus, it is possible that oxidation stress may also cause neuron death.”