Having a healthy diet is an important part of living a long life. While many people would like to live longer and in better health, several popular drinks may actually shorten your lifespan.

Alcohol consumption may speed up biological aging, according to new genetic study results published by Oxford Population Health experts.

According to the study, which was published in Molecular Psychiatry, alcohol may harm the DNA in telomeres.

Dr. Anya Topiwala, the study’s principal investigator, asserted that the results “support the suggestion that alcohol, particularly at excessive levels, directly affects telomere length.”

Telomere shortening has been proposed as a risk factor for a variety of serious age-related disorders.

“Our results,” according to the author, “provide another piece of information for clinicians and patients seeking to reduce the harmful effects of excess alcohol.”

Also, the amount of alcohol consumed is critical — even a small reduction in consumption can have positive effects.

For the study, researchers looked at how drinking alcohol affected the length of telomeres in more than 245,000 people from the UK Biobank.

The majority of individuals were current drinkers, with an average age of 57.

The observational study found a “significant association” between drinking a lot of alcohol and having shorter telomeres.

Analyzing the data revealed that drinking more than 29 units of alcohol per week was associated with the two-year delay in the telomere length change caused by aging.

When compared to controls, people with alcohol use disorders experienced a reduction in performance comparable to six years of aging.

The link between drinking and telomere length, on the other hand, seemed to be important only for people who drank more than 17 units per week.

17 units?

For spirits like vodka, one measurement is equal to one unit.

So, if you had 17 single drinks of any spirit over the course of a week, that would equal 17 units.

One bottle of wine, for example, is usually equal to 10 units, so units can quickly add up.

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