We drink and grow old
Alcohol accelerated biological aging
Olga Ivanova, Naked Science
Everyone knows about the dangers of alcohol, but even scientists know little about its effect on biological aging. It is known to be closely related to the so-called terminal underreplication and remains its most important cause.
Simply put, biological aging depends on the process of shortening telomeres — the end sections of chromosomes. The fact is that in each cycle of telomere division, cells shorten due to the inability of DNA polymerase (an enzyme involved in DNA replication) to synthesize a copy of DNA from the very end. It can only add nucleotides to an already existing 3’-hydroxyl group.
Scientists from Oxford (UK) and Yale (USA) universities decided to determine the relationship between alcohol consumption and the process of terminal underreplication. They presented their findings in the journal Molecular Psychiatry (Topiwala et al., Alcohol consumption and telomere length: Mendelian randomization clarifies alcohol's effects). The authors used data on 245,354 participants taken from the British Biobank. Most of them have consumed alcohol, four percent have been drinkers in the past and only three percent have never drunk at all. More than half of the subjects, 51 percent, were men, 49 percent were women, the average age was 57 years.
The scientists used the Mendelian randomization method. Increasing the dose (up to 32 units per week) led to an even greater shortening of telomeres — up to three years. It turned out that, compared with the consumption of two large glasses of wine with a volume of 250 milliliters (six units) per week, ten of the same glasses (more than 29 units) over the same period of time were associated with a more rapid shortening of telomeres by one to two years. Those who were diagnosed with a disorder associated with alcohol consumption had significantly shorter telomere length compared to those who did not suffer from similar problems.
However, the connection between these facts turned out to be significant only for those who consumed more than 17 units of alcohol per week. Shortening of telomeres is associated not only with the fact that a person, for example, looks bad, but also with such serious diseases as Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, scientists recommend at least gradually reducing the dose of alcohol to those who have problems with it. Even such a measure can prevent premature aging.
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