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.
Morons who pay any attention to ‘studies’ like this are already demented, so, what’s the problem?
You mean a drunk driver hit her?
.
Ha!
I shudder to even think of it!
My MIL is 97, with poor hearing and macular degeneration. She drank like a fish in her younger years, and still has a nightly cocktail (just one) with her dinner. Her mind is pretty good for her age, though she is just now starting to repeat herself, so I think there’s no room left on her hard drive. (She remembers old stuff easily, but she might not be able to tell you what you just talked about.)
Oh, she gets around pretty well, too. Walks every day, though slowly for us. She uses a walking stick in her neighborhood, and that’s it. Takes a cane with her to the grocery store, but doesn’t use it at home.
She’s pretty impressive.
Same. For me, it was my dad. Never wanted to be like that. Luckily, I was/am so big that I never took much crap for not drinking, including high school and college.
“as well as genetic data for about 2.4 million people.”
Where did they get that?
The good news is I won’t remember how many drinks I had so keep ‘em coming.
As an aside. 4 weeks without a drop, which for me, is a lifetime.
/sarc
I used to work with a guy who was a heavy drinker. When he would get drunk he would start moaning “Oh, my poor liver!” over and over again. Wasn’t worried about brain cells apparently.
Well, I’m certainly headed for trouble, enjoy some Whistle Pig Rye whiskey from time to time.
One’s gut is essentially an anaerobic environment. The normal gut flora lives by fermentation. Ethanol is a product of one of the pathways. Even tea totallers produce, and their liver detoxifies, on the order of 2 oz ethanol per day. And there is no way to avoid this exposure.
The wife and I have been on the wagon for about 6 weeks. I really got into the habit of drinking bourbon during the Covid debacle.
No, Alzheimer’s.
I quit drinking over 30 years ago. Now I can’t even stand the smell of it.
I am also a teetotaler, never touch alcohol.
I can make a fool out of myself with chocolate anyway.
Let me have a cocktail while I consider this news....
The worst part of not drinking is I am not nearly as handsome or funny as I use to be...
I know for a fact everyone that drank milk has or will die!
Can I gt my grant funds now?
No it doesn’t. 🙄
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