Posted on 09/26/2025 5:32:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Alcohol raises the risk of dementia regardless of whether people are genetically predisposed to the neurodegenerative condition, a large new study suggests.
It is the latest research to confirm that even moderate alcohol consumption can pose health risks. Despite the occasional headline about the benefits of low-level drinking, research has repeatedly shown that no amount of alcohol is safe for our health.
“For anyone who chooses to drink, our study suggests that greater alcohol consumption leads to higher risk of dementia,” Stephen Burgess, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, said in a statement.
The study, which was published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, included about 560,000 people in the United Kingdom and the United States who were followed over several years, as well as genetic data for about 2.4 million people.
In the first part of the study, researchers asked people how much they drank and then determined the relationship between alcohol and dementia risks. They also analysed genetic markers tied to alcohol use to take into account its cumulative effect over the course of people’s lives.
The higher someone’s genetic risks tied to alcohol, the higher their dementia risks, the study found. If someone had three drinks per week, for example, they were 15 per cent more likely to develop dementia than someone who had one drink per week.
“Genetic evidence offers no support for a protective effect [from alcohol] – in fact, it suggests the opposite,” said Anya Topiwala, one of the study’s authors and a senior clinical researcher at the University of Oxford.
The study does not conclusively prove that drinking alcohol causes dementia, only that the two are linked, cautioned Tara Spires-Jones, director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She was not involved in the study.
Which country in Europe is home to the continent's heaviest drinkers? However, “fundamental neuroscience work has shown that alcohol is directly toxic to neurons in the brain,” she added in a statement.
In one previous study using brain scans, researchers found that drinking one or two units of alcohol per day was associated with reductions in brain volume and changes to its structure, which may be linked to memory loss and dementia.
The latest study’s authors said their findings add to the growing body of evidence that cutting out alcohol could have serious health benefits.
“Reducing alcohol consumption across the population could play a significant role in dementia prevention,” Topiwala said.
Mark
RE: Trump, Mitt Romney and Frank Ballenger walk into a bar...
...and Frank says “I remember now, this is the place that has crummy seltzer water. Let’s go to the ice cream place down the block.”
“Yeah”
“You got it, Frank.”
I also think anyone can make a case that too much of anything, can kill you. Even good old water.
With dementia it seems that something kind of needs to be a catalyst for it to occur and get worse. Not just alcohol by itself. Like a hard fall on your head, or like a brain infection. My grandpa had a couple hard falls on ice and from that, he wound up developing parkinsons and dementia.
1 Timothy 5:23
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
Case closed.
Well, I’m screwed....
Oops! Too late.
The voice of the neo-prohibitionists is being raised once again.
If you live long enough, you're bound to die of something.
Wandering around babbling and eating ice cream? Gimme 15-20 years and I’m ok with it.
Oh, equine effluvia. Also, hold my beer. Heh.
Poisons in the food, drink, and air.
And oxygen is an oxidizer.
The secret to immortality is to not eat or breathe.
Alcohol is a powerful dehydrating agent. Drinking alcohol dries skin from inside causing more wrinkles.
I drank a ton until I was 75, then I stopped. It’s been four years now and I have to say I really miss it. But on the other hand, I have never felt so good. Sleep like a baby. No aches or pains. All my medical tests are good. But, I miss it.
How can she be, she has no real active brain cells.
My mother never touched a drop and she died from it.
Like my high school baseball coach used to tell us, "Throw strikes they can't hit."
If I was suffering from dementia, then the author of this article was NOT being helpful:
“ add to the growing body of evidence that cutting out alcohol could have serious health benefits.”
Dad almost ninety says: Fiddle.
Heard about the guy who once totally gave up drinking, smoking, eating junk foods and chasing women for sex?
Looking back on that time he says it was the worst twenty minutes of his whole life.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.