Even light drinking is linked to worse hand dexterity and balance as we age

Key Points:

• A recent study published in Alcohol and Alcoholism found that even low-level lifetime alcohol consumption is linked to poorer hand dexterity and balance in healthy adults, with combined effects of age and total lifetime drinks predicting motor coordination decline.
• The study assessed 83 healthy, non-smoking adults using the Lafayette Grooved Pegboard Test for manual dexterity and the Sharpened Romberg Test for balance, revealing that higher lifetime average drinks per month correlated with worse balance when visual input was removed.
• These findings challenge previous public health guidelines that considered low-level drinking safe, aligning with emerging evidence that any alcohol consumption increases risks for cancer and brain abnormalities.
• The research is observational and limited by a modest sample size, especially among women, and cannot definitively establish causation; lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise may also influence results.
• Future studies aim to explore how low-level alcohol intake affects cognitive functions like attention, memory, and processing speed, as well as interactions with general health markers.