Alcohol Linked to Shrinkage

Brain shrinkage, that is.

As if never having to suffer "beer goggle regret" -- that condition under which you never go to bed with an ugly woman but occasionally wake up next to one -- weren't enough reason for me not to drink, now there's a Health Magazine story about a study showing a link between alcohol consumption and shrinkage of the brain.

Brains normally shrink as we grow older. (though our skulls do not -- does that mean that we literally become airheads as we age?) And the increased shrinkage, if that's not an oxymoron, in a heavy drinker's brain compared to a teetotaler's is not vast -- less than 1.5%.

But it does exist. And with so few functioning brain cells to begin with, I need to do all I can to avoid damaging the ones I have.