Smoking and alcohol accelerate brain aging, study claims

Smoking and alcohol accelerate brain aging, the University of Southern California scientists have found.

Their research, which analyzed the results of a brain scan of thousands of people aged 45-81 taking into account the consumption of alcohol and smoking, showed that people who drink a pint of beer or a glass of wine daily may experience accelerated brain aging, The Daily Mail reported.

Scientists determined the age of the brain by MRI scans. It showed that the brain of the people who regularly drank alcohol, grew older faster than those who did not drink at all or very rarely

"Each additional pack-year - defined as smoking a pack of cigarettes per day on average for a year - was linked with 0.03 years of increased relative brain age," the source noted.