#lowleveldrinking — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #lowleveldrinking, aggregated by home.social.
-
DATE: September 16, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Even light drinking is linked to worse hand dexterity and balance as we age
URL: https://www.psypost.org/even-light-drinking-is-linked-to-worse-hand-dexterity-and-balance-as-we-age/
A recent study suggests that even low-level alcohol consumption over a person’s lifetime is associated with worse hand dexterity and poorer balance. The research, published in Alcohol and Alcoholism, indicates that the combination of advancing age and a higher number of lifetime drinks might negatively affect motor coordination and postural stability in otherwise healthy adults.
Manual dexterity involves the ability to make coordinated hand and finger movements to grasp and manipulate objects. Static postural stability refers to the ability to maintain balance and hold the body upright while standing still. Both of these physical skills are necessary for independent daily living as people age, helping with everything from buttoning a shirt to avoiding falls.
Historically, public health guidelines often framed light drinking as safe or even protective against certain cardiovascular issues. “For decades, ‘low-level’ alcohol consumption at or below current guidelines (≤1 standard drink equivalent/day for females, ≤2 standard drink equivalents/day for males) has been proposed to carry minimal systemic health risks or functional consequences,” Timothy C. Durazzo, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a clinical neuropsychologist at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center within the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, told PsyPost.
However, the scientific consensus has been shifting. “There is increasing evidence that any level of alcohol consumption is associated with increased risk for at least six different types of cancer,” Durazzo noted. He added that even low-level drinking at or below previous federal guidelines “is associated with abnormalities in structure, blood flow and metabolite markers of cell integrity across multiple regions of the human brain.”
Building on this evidence, Durazzo and his colleagues aimed to explore how low-level drinking relates to physical motor skills. Prior structural imaging studies suggested that low-level alcohol consumption is associated with decreased brain tissue integrity, but it was unknown if these subtle brain changes translated to physical functional differences. “However, there are no published studies on the association of low-level alcohol consumption with concurrent measures of manual dexterity and complex motor coordination, and static postural stability in exclusively healthy, non-smoking adults,” Durazzo explained. “These measures are relevant because functional impairments in these areas may have significant consequences for the activities of daily living (ADL), particularly with advancing age.”
To test this, the researchers recruited 83 healthy, non-smoking adults between 21 and 69 years old. The participants were screened to ensure they had no history of psychiatric, neurological, or major medical conditions. They were also required to have a history of low-level drinking, meaning they consumed a limited number of drinks per month and had no history of binge drinking in the year prior to the study.
The researchers used a standardized questionnaire called the Lifetime Drinking History to calculate each participant’s alcohol consumption. From this questionnaire, they determined the total number of drinks consumed over the past year, the past three years, and over the participant’s entire lifetime, as well as their lifetime average drinks per month.
To assess physical coordination, participants completed two standardized behavioral tests. The first was the Lafayette Grooved Pegboard Test, which measures manual dexterity, complex motor coordination, and motor speed. Participants were timed as they quickly inserted 25 small pegs into randomly oriented slots, completing the task once with their dominant hand and once with their non-dominant hand.
The second test was the Sharpened Romberg Test, which measures static postural stability. Participants were asked to stand heel-to-toe with their arms crossed over their chest for 60 seconds. They performed this balancing task first with their eyes open, relying heavily on visual input, and then with their eyes closed, which forces the brain to rely on internal sensory and vestibular systems to stay upright.
When analyzing the grooved pegboard results, the researchers found that recent drinking over the past one or three years did not predict physical performance. Instead, the mathematical combination of a person’s age multiplied by their total lifetime drinks was a reliable predictor of their manual dexterity. A higher combined total of age and lifetime drinks was associated with slower completion times for the dominant hand, as well as slower times when adding the scores of both hands together. “The associations observed were moderate in magnitude and the relationship between the product of age and total lifetime drinks was stronger for the participants’ dominant hand,” Durazzo said.
The balance test yielded a slightly different pattern. Every participant successfully maintained their balance for the full 60 seconds when their eyes were open. For the more difficult eyes-closed condition, a higher lifetime average of drinks per month was related to poorer performance. For each standard deviation increase in lifetime average drinks per month, participants had 2.3 times lower odds of perfectly maintaining their balance for the full 60 seconds.
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost earlier this year. That earlier study, which examined brain tissue thickness and blood flow on MRI rather than behavioral motor coordination and balance, similarly found that higher lifetime alcohol consumption combined with older age was associated with subtle neurological declines in healthy adults.
“Our recent research on this topic, combined with the existing research on the effects of low-level alcohol consumption on the human brain, suggest that lifetime alcohol consumption considered ‘low risk’ combined with increasing age, may have functional and brain biological consequences in healthy adults,” Durazzo noted.
There are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting these findings. The study had a modest sample size, particularly regarding female participants. Because there were only 22 women compared to 61 men, the researchers noted that any sex-specific differences would require further exploration with a larger group of people.
The study design is observational, meaning it cannot firmly establish that alcohol caused the physical declines. Unrecorded lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise habits, or genetics, might also play a role in motor performance and balance. Future research could look at general health markers, like blood chemistry and vitamins, to see how they interact with alcohol exposure to influence physical coordination over a lifetime.
“Next steps are to investigate the associations of low-level drinking with measures of attention/concentration, learning and memory and processing speed in a similar sample of healthy adults with low-level alcohol intake,” Durazzo added.
The study, “In healthy adults with low-level alcohol intake greater age and lifetime alcohol consumption are associated with poorer manual dexterity and higher lifetime consumption is related to worse postural stability,” was authored by Timothy C. Durazzo, Nicole D. Evangelista, M. Windy McNerney, Ansgar J. Furst, Maheen M. Adamson, Keith Humphreys, and Dieter J. Meyerhoff.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/even-light-drinking-is-linked-to-worse-hand-dexterity-and-balance-as-we-age/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AlcoholAndAging #DexterityDecline #BalanceOnTheLine #LowLevelDrinking #BrainHealth #MotorSkills #PosturalStability #LifetimeAlcoholConsumption #HealthyAging #PublicHealthResearch