A study has linked drinking alcohol to health issues later in life such as cognitive decline and dementia-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s.

“They found that moderate and heavy and former heavy alcohol users did have pathologic changes in the brain,” said Dr. Lisa Shulman, a professor of neurology at the University of Maryland, and director of the school’s movement and memory disorder division.

Specifically two types of changes: neurofibrillary tangles, which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and hyaline arteriolosclerosis, which essentially is a hardening of the small blood vessels called arterioles. These impair blood supply to the brain.

Heavy drinkers were described as having eight drinks per week.

The study published in the “Neurology” journal in May examined around 1,700 autopsies and gathered family history, including alcohol consumption.

“Alcohol has broad negative effects on many systems of the body,” Shulman said. “Most people know that it can affect the liver, but it can cause cancer, it can affect heart function. As a matter of fact, we are very accustomed in neurology to seeing people who are very heavy alcohol users.”

Issues with the brain were not the only findings.

“The heavy drinkers died much younger, on average, actually about 64 as compared to between 74 and 78 between the other groups,” Shulman said.