Drinking problems tied to early dementia
Heavy drinkers may be more likely than other adults to develop dementia, especially in middle age, a French study suggests.
For the study, researchers examined data from 2008-2013 on more than 31 million French hospital patients, including more than 1 million who were diagnosed with dementia. About 5 per cent of the dementia patients had socalled early onset dementia that started before age 65, and most of these cases were alcohol-related, the study found.
“Chronic heavy drinking was the most important modifiable risk factor for dementia onset in both genders and remained so after controlling for all known risk factors for dementia onset,” said lead study author Michael Schwarzinger, chief executive officer of Translational Health Economics Network and a researcher at INSERM–Universite Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cite in France.
Surprisingly, heavy drinkers who got sober didn’t have a lower dementia risk than their peers who remained problem drinkers,” Schwarzinger said by email. “This finding supports that chronic heavy drinking leads to irreversible brain damage,” Schwarzinger added.
While some previous research suggests that alcohol may lead to cognitive impairments including a risk of dementia, other studies have linked light or moderate alcohol use to a healthier brain, researchers note in the Lancet Public Health.
Globally, an estimated 3.3 million people a year die as a result of alcohol misuse, accounting for about 6 percent of all deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO defines chronic heavy drinking as more than 60 grams of pure alcohol, or at least 6 drinks, for men and more than 40 grams, or at least 4 drinks, for women.
During the study period, 945,512 people were diagnosed with alcohol use disorders. Most of these cases were alcohol dependency.
Overall, about 3 per cent of the dementia cases were attributable to alcohol-related brain damage, and other alcohol use disorders were recorded in almost 5 percent of dementia cases.