- Heavy drinking is associated with a wide range of illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and cancer.
- However, a new study suggests that mild or moderate alcohol intake could be associated with a reduction in a person’s risk of dementia, whereas heavy drinking is linked to an increased risk.
- A range of other health, social, and economic factors may explain the association, which remains controversial.
- Doctors do not recommend that people start drinking or increase their drinking, for whatever reason.
The evidence is clear that long-term, excessive alcohol consumption causes severe, life-threatening harm to health, including stroke, heart disease, liver disease, and cancer.
In the United States alone, around
So it comes as a surprise that several population-based studies have found an association between light or moderate alcohol consumption and a lower incidence of dementia.
There may be alternative explanations for the findings, however, and it is important to note that other studies have failed to find any protective effect.
A recent study that gave cognitive tests and brain scans to more than 25,000 people in the United Kingdom, for example, concluded that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption for brain health.
All the same, some observational studies do find a statistical link between light or moderate drinking and a lower risk of dementia. But with this type of research, it is difficult to establish whether alcohol has caused the reduction, or whether some other, related factor is responsible.
“There is a well-established link between heavy drinking and an increased risk of dementia,” Dr. Sara Imarisio, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, told Medical News Today.
“But studies of alcohol intake can be challenging to carry out, and the evidence regarding the effect of moderate alcohol intake is much less…
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