Comparison With Other Studies
We, as with others,7 observed an increased risk of dementia in alcohol abstainers, a finding subject to much debate. As studies usually assess alcohol consumption only once, excess risk might be driven by the inclusion of former drinkers in the same group as abstainers.7 Our analyses using repeat data on alcohol consumption across midlife suggest that former drinking might not explain the excess dementia risk in abstainers, although we cannot exclude the possibility that those who report alcohol abstinence in midlife were heavy drinkers in young adulthood or misreported their alcohol consumption. We accounted for several sociodemographic and health related characteristics in the analysis, but residual confounding cannot be excluded as an explanation for the higher risk of dementia among abstainers. Indeed, this group is particular in that it is composed mainly of women from the lower socioeconomic group with higher prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors and disease at baseline, a pattern that has also been observed in other studies.3537
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Can Alcohol Cause Dementia
People who do not binge drink or become dependent on alcohol do not need to worry about an alcohol-dementia link, says Nikola Djordjevic, MD. “Alcohol consumption in moderate amounts has not been found to cause dementia or any other cognitive impairments. However, excessive use and abuse in old age have been associated with changes in brain structure that increase the risk of Alzheimerâs and variants of dementia,” he explains.
A 2018 study found that heavy drinking increased the risk of dementia by about three times. Alcoholism may increase the risk of certain medical conditions that damage the cardiovascular system, including high blood pressure. Research increasingly links both heart disease and heart disease risk factors to an elevated risk of developing dementia.
Alcoholism may also cause a rare type of dementia called Korsakoff syndrome, according to The Alzheimer’s Association. This dementia appears when a person is deficient in thiamine/vitamin B1, a deficiency that is more prevalent among chronic alcoholics.
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Who Can Develop Alcohol
Any person who drinks alcohol heavily over many years can develop alcohol-related dementia. It is unknown why some heavy drinkers develop dementia, and others dont. It may be a difference in diet and other lifestyle factors.
Typically, alcohol-related dementia affects men over 45 struggling with chronic alcoholism. However, women may also develop this disease since alcohol affects them more substantially than men. To reduce the risk of dementia and alcoholism, experts recommend drinking no more than two drinks per day.
Moderate Drinking And Ad
A 2020 study showed that moderate alcohol intake could lower a persons risk of developing Alzheimers disease.
The study defined moderate drinking as consuming 113 standard drinks per week, equivalent to 10130 grams per week.
However, drinking guidelines do vary per country. A standard drink contains , or 0.6 ounces , of pure alcohol in the United States.
Generally, this is equivalent to:
- 12 oz of beer with 5% alcohol: approximately one beer
- 5 oz of wine with 12% alcohol: one standard glass of wine
- 8 oz of malt liquor with 7% alcohol: one standard glass of malt liquor
- 1.5 oz of liquor or distilled spirits with 40% alcohol: a standard shot glass of spirit
A found a significant association between reducing a persons alcohol consumption with a lower risk of cognitive impairments and dementia.
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Strengths And Limitations Of This Study
The present study has several strengths. Repeat assessment of alcohol consumption allowed us to assess mean midlife alcohol consumption in order to minimise biases due to measurement error, examine associations with dementia of trajectories of alcohol consumption between midlife and early old age, and examine whether age modifies associations between alcohol consumption and dementia. These features, along with a mean follow-up period of 23 years, allowed a comprehensive assessment of the association of alcohol consumption with dementia. Besides measurement error, studies that recruit participants at older ages are not able to assess the excess risk in those who change their alcohol consumption with age. We were also able to examine the shape of the association between alcohol consumption > 14 units/week and dementia, which was similar to that reported in a recent meta-analysis.7 Dose-response assessment by meta-analysis can be problematic for heavy alcohol consumption as the estimate is constrained to the mean or median consumption in the high alcohol consumption category.7 Finally, we used multistate models to examine the role of cardiometabolic disease and we undertook further analyses to take the competing risk of mortality into account where results were similar to those obtained using Cox regression, increasing confidence in our main findings.
What Is The Cause
It is currently unclear as to whether alcohol has a direct toxic effect on the brain cells, or whether the damage is due to lack of thiamine, vitamin B1.Nutritional problems, which often accompany consistent or episodic heavy use of alcohol, are thought to be contributing factors. Key parts of the brain may suffer damage through vitamin deficiencies, particularly marked levels of thiamine deficiency and the direct effect that alcohol has on the absorption and use of thiamine.
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What Exactly Is Alcohol Induced Dementia
Alcohol-induced dementia is a result of excessive drinking which leads to neurologic problems in drinkers who began binge drinking before age 45 compared to those who started drinking between ages 30 and 45, and middle aged women are at a greater risk.
Much of what happens with dementia comes from your head in areas that make it impossible for people to stay alert to keep their brains safe from harm.
If people don’t have adequate oxygen or nutrition or any other stimulation type, brain cells can degenerate which is what leads to symptoms related to Wernicke’s encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s association, and Korsakoff’s syndrome.
Scientists have found that some of the damage caused by excessive alcohol over long periods is similar to that caused by any alcohol related brain damage.
Can Alcoholism Cause Dementia
Over time, and when left untreated, repeated excessive alcohol use can lead to permanent brain damage that can result in dementia and other issues. When treated early enough though, there is a chance that at least some of those symptoms can be reversed or at the very least slowed down.
At Harmony Place, we understand the importance of getting treated for any alcohol-related issues as quickly as possible once they begin. Thats why we offer a variety of programs designed specifically for those suffering from things like alcoholism, alcohol abuse, and alcohol addiction.
In addition to our many traditional treatment methods such as cognitive-behavioral therapy , dialectical behavioral therapy , eye movement desensitization, and reprocessing we also offer a variety of alternative and holistic therapies including:
- Yoga
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Alcohol Consumption And Risk Of Dementia: 23 Year Follow
- Accepted 25 June 2018
Objective To examine the association between alcohol consumption and risk of dementia.
Design Prospective cohort study.
Setting Civil service departments in London .
Participants 9087 participants aged 35-55 years at study inception .
Can A Person With Alzheimers Drink Alcohol
The short answer is: No. According to an article published in July 2012 by CNN, alcohol and Alzheimerâs donât mix.
Although the article goes on to state that the effects of alcohol on a person with Alzheimerâs arenât completely understood new studies have found that binge drinking once a month of a person with Alzheimerâs can lead to a 62% decline in cognitive function.
Add to that fact the possibility that they wonât remember how many drinks they have had or what reactions they might experience because of medication interactions, and you have a recipe for potential disaster. One must also bear in mind that Alzheimerâs engenders confusion. Alcoholâs ability to further impair awareness and perception could exacerbate an already bad situation.
Beth Kallmyer, the vice president of constituent services at the Alzheimerâs Association, suggests that if a person with Alzheimerâs asks for a drink, caretakers should try distractions to keep them occupied so that they forget about their request. They certainly do not need to be intoxicated.
Notes:
Southern Illinoisan , Jan. 1, 2002, p 13.
Annemieke Ruitenberg, John C van Swieten, Jacqueline Witteman, Kala Mehta, Cornelia van Duijn, Albert Hofman, and Monique Breteler, âAlcohol Consumption and Risk of Dementia: The Rotterdam Study,â Lancet, vol. 359, no. 9303, Jan. 26, 2002, pp. 281-286, < > .
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How Exactly Can Alcohol Lead To Dementia
Any sort of brain damage or dementia that directly died to an alcohol-related condition is considered alcohol-related brain damage or ARBD. When a person consumes an excessive amount of alcohol they are actively preventing the neurons in the brain from regenerating, thus killing them off. Over time, killing off enough of those neurons can lead to brain damage, including memory loss and other symptoms associated with dementia.
While many people associate dementia with those who are older, ARBD is becoming more and more common amongst those who are middle-aged with middle-aged women being the largest affected demographic. This is largely due to the differences in their body fat composition, height-to-weight ratio, and their hormones.
Just like Alzheimers and other more traditional forms of dementia, alcohol-related brain damage produces similar symptoms due to how alcohol affects the cholinergic system which plays an important role in memory.
Signs & Symptoms Of Dementia
The symptoms arent exactly the same for everyone, and not all types of dementia have the same symptoms.4 However, some of the more common signs and symptoms of dementia include:3,4,5,8,9
- Asking the same questions.
- Trouble speaking or reading and writing.
- Unusual visual changes not attributed to aging.
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Alcohol Use Disorder Neurodegeneration Alzheimers And Parkinsons Disease: Interplay Between Oxidative Stress Neuroimmune Response And Excitotoxicity
- 1Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 2Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 3Neuropharmacology Research Laboratory, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
- 4Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 5Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Is There Treatment Available
At an early stage of the disease, problems may be reduced or reversed if the person abstains from alcohol, improves their diet and replace vitamins especially thiamine and vitamin B1. Thiamine is important to limit some of the toxic effects of alcohol, and is an important supplement for heavy drinkers.
Community support is available for the person with dementia, their family and carers. This support can make a positive difference to managing dementia.
Many people who develop alcohol related dementia are young, and this can mean that they and their family and carers will need extra consideration. It may be helpful to talk to a counsellor at Dementia Australia. Contact the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500.
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Diagnosing Alcohol Use Disorder
In comparison, the DSM-5 provides clinicians with guidelines for diagnosing AUD, however most of these criteria are self-diagnostic and depend on the patients own awareness and observations.7 According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism , AUD signs may include:
- drinking more, or longer, than planned
- trying to cut back or stop more than once without success
- spending a lot of time drinking, being sick, or hungover
- wanting alcohol so badly you cant think of anything else
- Having problems with work, school, or family because of your habit
- continuing to drink even though it has caused problems for you or your relationships
- quitting or cutting back on other activities that were important to you in order to drink
- finding yourself in situations while drinking or afterward that made you more likely to get hurt
- continuing to drink alcohol even though it made you depressed or anxious, hurt your health, or led to a memory blackout
- having to drink more than you used to for the effect you want
- finding that you had withdrawal symptoms when the buzz wore off, like trouble sleeping, shakiness, restlessness, nausea, sweating, a racing heart, a seizure, or seeing, hearing, or feeling things that arent there.
If the patient confirms two or three of those symptoms in the past year, they are likely to have mild AUD. If the patient confirms four or five, the AUD is likely mild six or more confirmations signals severe AUD.7
The Benefits Of Alcohol
A study published in the journal of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment states that consuming one or two alcoholic drinks per day can lower your risk of Alzheimers disease. This research joins a growing body of work suggesting that moderate drinking may have positive mental effects.
The study looked at data collected from more than 365,000 participants around the world. They found that moderate drinkers, defined as no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women, were 23 percent less likely to show signs of serious memory problems or to develop Alzheimers disease when compared to non-drinkers.
Researchers also found that drinking wine had more mental benefits than consuming other types of alcohol. Researchers arent completely sure how to explain these benefits. Some point to the anti-inflammatory features of alcohol while others suggest that these positive effects are actually due to the social interactions which occur while the alcohol is being consumed. Having an active social life has shown to help ward off Alzheimers disease.
Regardless of why the benefit exists, the authors conclude that there is substantial evidence that light to moderate drinking, particularly of wine, reduces the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment.
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What Should I Take Away From This Research
The link between alcohol and dementia in non-drinkers however is not fully understood and individuals who do not currently drink alcohol should not start as a method of protection against the development of dementia.
From the evidence collected to date, it is not possible to determine what effect drinking within the NHS recommended alcohol guidelines has on a person’s risk of dementia.
Guidelines recommend that alcohol consumption be reduced as much as possible, particularly in mid-life, to minimize the risk of developing other age-related conditions such as frailty. Current evidence indicates that adopting a healthy lifestyle throughout your life is the best way to reduce risk of dementia and other long-term health problems. This includes drinking in moderation but also other factors such as not smoking, taking plenty of physical exercise and eating a healthy, balanced diet.
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When Patients Ask How Much Is Too Much Alcohol
Patients always seem to ask this question. The answer is it depends. Theres no conclusive consensus on the amount or duration of alcohol consumption that leads to ARBD. For starters, countries lack a standard measure of what a standard drink is. A persons weight, gender, metabolism, and genetic predisposition are also factors.
NIAAA defines low-risk drinking as no more than three drinks on any single day and no more than seven drinks per week, for women. For men, it is defined as no more than four drinks on any single day and no more than 14 drinks per week. NIAAA research shows that only about 2 in 100 people who drink within these limits meet the criteria for AUD, however, even within these limits, people can have problems if they drink too quickly or if they have other health issues.12
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Alcohol And Brain Injury
Alcohol intoxication tends to impair coordination, so people who are intoxicated are more likely to have accidents or falls. Head injuries, especially if they are severe, involve a loss of consciousness, or happen multiple times, are linked to an increased risk of dementia, even many years after the brain injury occurs.4,9 These types of injuries may be known as traumatic brain injuries , and can occur as a risk of car accidents, falls, or fights. TBIs can cause damage to areas of the brain, and begin a series of changes that allow proteins that cause dementia to accumulate near the damaged area.9
Is Alcoholic Dementia Treatable What Are The Options
The best treatment for alcoholic dementia is total abstinence. If the person is still addicted to alcohol, treatment for the addiction is the first step, and many forms of help are available.
Alcohol addiction treatment begins with detoxification . A variety of sedative drugs can help manage alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Medications used to treat alcohol addiction include:
- Naltrexone
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