Alcohol Consumption Changes the Aging Clock

Does alcohol drinking make you age faster? The answer is not so straightforward, based on a recently published study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine.

The study, published in Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research, utilized five different epigenetic clocks, a measure of an individual’s biological age, and examined the effects of varying levels of alcohol consumption on biological age. The results show that the clock ticks faster among heavy alcohol drinkers but slower among light to moderate drinkers.

“A nonlinear relationship between alcohol consumption and epigenetic age is very interesting. It suggests a complicated effect of alcohol use on health,” said Ke Xu, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and a senior author on the paper.

Five clocks derived from different tissues and different aging related factors show similar patterns. One novel clock that is built from DNA modifications in monocytes, which was developed by Xu’s group, shows the strongest association with alcohol consumption and epigenetic age. Monocytes play an important role in inflammation and aging process.

The study was conducted in over 2,000 individuals including both healthy participants and persons living with HIV.

“Heavy alcohol drinking might change the aging clock before one develops medical disease. The finding highlights the impact of lifestyle factors on health and their importance for preventing alcohol use related medical comorbidities,” said Rajita Sinha, PhD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor in the Child Study Center and of Neuroscience, and a co-author on the study.

Amy Justice, MD, PhD, C.N.H. Long Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health, commented that a biomarker of alcohol consumption, PEth, but not self-reported alcohol use, showed an association with epigenetic aging among the same people from the Veteran Aging Cohort Study.

Considering the mounting evidence of harmful effects of alcohol use, and the fact that many individuals stop drinking as they age, the effect of light to moderate drinking on epigenetic aging needs to be interpreted cautiously.

Xiaoyu Liang, PhD, a former postdoctoral associate at Xu’s lab, is the lead author. Drs. Bradley Aouizerat and Mardge Cohen from the Women’s Interagency HIV Study also collaborated on the study.