More ways alcohol is worse than we thought

By and large, booze is bad for you. It’s a known neurotoxin that increases the risk for brain injury, cancer, hypertension, heart disease, and a long list of other ailments that we’d all much rather do without.  It can kill you, too. In the US alone, excessive alcohol use is tied to roughly 95,000 deaths annually and is responsible for 10% of deaths in adults between 20-64 years of age.

Many of us have felt the harms of alcohol firsthand through the anguish of a hangover, the regret of a poor decision, the pain of an injury—even through the loss of a loved one, an addiction, or a chronic disease. We’ve learned about them secondhand in school and through the media. But our knowledge has been—and likely remains—incomplete. Research continually uncovers new ways alcohol harms us, individually and in communities.

Here are 4 ways alcohol is worse than we thought. 

Alcohol makes you want more alcohol

Curing a hangover with the hair of the dog that bit you is a dangerous game, but new research suggests this age-old motivation to have a drink the morning after is even more dangerous than we thought, because it might be driven by the alcohol from the night before.

In a 3-day behavioral alcohol motivation experiment, moderate, non-binging, binging, and heavy social drinkers were exposed to imagery of either stress, neutral, or alcohol-related cues. Following exposure to this imagery each day, subjects were exposed to discrete alcoholic beer cues followed by an alcohol taste test to assess their behavioral motivation. Then, in real time, scientists measured gene expression of the PER2 and POMC gene levels in participants’ blood samples. They found increased methylation of the PER2 and POMC DNA, as well as reduced expression of these genes in blood samples of the binge and heavy drinkers relative to the moderate and non-binge drinkers.

What does that mean? Increased PER2 and POMC DNA methylation was significantly predictive of increased levels of subjective alcohol craving and alcohol consumption. That means scientists have uncovered a link between heavy drinking and chemically increased and subjective behavioral motivation to drink alcohol.

Miscarriages in the weeks following gestation

As the CDC puts it, “there is no known safe amount of alcohol use during pregnancy or while trying to get pregnant.” Alcohol in the mother’s blood passes to the baby through the umbilical cord and can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, and a range of lifelong physical, behavioral, and intellectual disabilities.

A big problem remains, though: Half of women use alcohol in the first weeks of gestation because they are unaware of their pregnancy. Most of these women stop once pregnancy is detected, which reduces the likelihood of the risks above. Still, the relationship between the timing of alcohol use and cessation in early pregnancy hasn’t been thoroughly studied—until now.

A new report published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology finds that each additional week of alcohol exposure during the first trimester increases the risk of spontaneous abortion by 8%, even at low levels of consumption and when excluding binge drinking. Of the 5,353 participants, 49.7% reported using alcohol during early pregnancy and 12% miscarried. This risk was cumulative and was not related to the types of drinks consumed or to the number of drinks consumed per week, meaning light, moderate, and heavy drinking were all associated with the same increase in risk.

Poor placental development

The placenta plays a direct, important role in fetal health. When mothers are over stressed, placentas sometimes function or develop poorly, which can lead to common pregnancy problems like pre-eclampsia, hypertension, and fetal growth restriction.  

Most studies focus on poor placental and embryonic growth late in pregnancy, but new research published in Development suggests increased maternal stress from alcohol consumption can severely damage embryonic and placental development, even in the earliest stages of gestation.

In the study, scientists exposed rats to 12.5% ethanol during the period from 4 days before to 4 days after conception. In the ensuing pregnancy, researchers observed changes in the trophoblast (the layer of tissue that supplies the embryo with nourishment in early pregnancy that eventually forms a major part of the placenta), effects on embryo-uterine communication, and changes in formation of the placental vasculature.

So how did this effect pregnancy? Rats exposed to alcohol in the roughly one-week period surrounding conception had much smaller placentas at day 15, and there was also evidence of reduced nutrient exchange between the placenta and embryo.

Violence at the liquor store

Previous studies have shown that a higher density of alcohol vendors (including liquor, beer, and wine stores, as well as restaurants and bars that serve alcohol) is positively associated with increased crime in the surrounding area. But new research suggests that alcohol vendors that sell booze for off-premises consumption have a stronger association with the incidence of violent crimes, including homicides, aggravated assaults, sexual assaults, and robbery, than restaurants and bars that serve alcohol for consumption on site. 

Generally, for every 10% increase in access to alcohol vendors in a community, violent crime in the surrounding area increases by 4.2%. But a 10% increase in liquor, beer, and wine stores had a 37% greater association with violent crime than vendors where alcohol could be consumed on-site.

The difference, authors suggested, had to do with how well store owners can manage their customers. Bars and restaurants typically have several layers of on-site security, while liquor stores tend to be characterized by solitary working conditions. 

Alcohol’s newest claims to infamy

In some ways, the research community’s take on alcohol consumption is split. Some studies urge abstinence, while others claim a daily glass of wine could benefit patients. But this fact remains unanimous: Alcohol abuse brings a litany of problems that’s almost too long to list. If it seems bad now, be sure to keep your eyes peeled: Science brings us new reasons to steer clear of alcohol abuse all the time.