Who would’ve thought that alcohol intake is linked directly to brain volume? That the size of the brain decreases by roughly 2 percent per decade, and that drinkers’ brains may shrink more rapidly?

Well, this is what researchers from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts claim, based on the results of a study they had carried out.

The findings, which appeared in the Archives of Neurology, included a total of 1,839 adults with an average age of 60 and who'd had MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) of their brains. The adults were followed between 1999 and 2001.

By asking the participants several questions about topics such as their health and drinking habits, researchers, led by Carol Ann Paul, an instructor in the neuroscience program at Wellesley College, found a direct bond between brain size and alcohol intake. More precisely, heavy drinkers were found more prone to accelerate the process of their brain shrinking.

Whereas the brains of individuals who never in their lives consumed alcohol occupied an estimated 78.6 percent of their cranial space, the brain volume of individuals who previously drank but had quit occupied about 78.2 percent and, in moderate drinkers’ case, 77.8 percent. And the figure for those who had the habit of drinking too much alcohol was only 77.2 percent.

"The public health effect of this study gives a clear message about the possible dangers of drinking alcohol," the authors of the study said.