Not only does alcohol have a negative impact on the brain, it is also highly associated with domestic abuse, child abuse and motor fatalities.

Question: What effect does alcohol have on aging?

Robert Butler: Well, for one thing they can cause what appears to be Alzheimer's disease, but is an impact, negative impact, upon the brain and that of course aside from that there are the facts that alcohol is highly associated with abuse-related families, domestic abuse, abuse of children, wives. About 27% of all highway fatalities are related to alcohol. Alcohol is a terrible national problem.

Well, we ought to have raise taxes, which we haven't done on alcohol since the 1950s and one of the reasons that people stopped smoking or reduced their smoking intake is the expense of taxes. Taxes was a very good strategy in reducing by 50% the number of smoker in the country. We could also significantly raise alcohol taxes and maybe have a powerful effect on alcoholism. 

Recorded on: Mar 17 2008