Even if you consume a small amount of alcohol, senior citizen Increased risk of dementia.
This is according to a recent study led by the University of Oxford in the UK, in collaboration with Yale University and the University of Cambridge, which analyzed data on more than 500,000 people drawn from the UK Biobank and the US Million Veterans Program.
They also analyzed data from more than 2.4 million participants across 45 studies to determine whether there was a link between genetically predicted likelihood of disease. alcohol intake According to an Oxford press release, alcohol use disorder is linked to the risk of dementia.
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This helped to assess whether alcohol itself could be a direct cause rather than simply related to the symptoms.
“If you use a new genetic analysis“We found that even small amounts of alcohol consumption appear to increase the risk of dementia,” study lead author Dr. Anya Topiwala, consultant psychiatrist and senior clinical research fellow at Oxford Population Health, told FOX News Digital.
Researchers found that higher alcohol intake was associated with a higher risk of dementia. This suggests that while there is “no evidence that alcohol consumption has a protective effect,” any level of alcohol consumption increases the likelihood of cognitive decline.
Researchers found that people with a “doubled increase” in genetic risk alcohol use disorder They had a 16% higher risk of dementia.
Additionally, those who increased their weekly alcohol intake by a factor of 3 had a 15% higher risk of dementia.
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The study is published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.
These findings challenge the common belief that low levels of alcohol are beneficial to health. brain healthaccording to Topiwala.
“The genetic evidence does not support a protective effect, and in fact suggests the opposite,” she said in the release. “Even if you drink light or moderate amounts of alcohol, Dementia riskindicating that reducing alcohol consumption in the population as a whole may play an important role in dementia prevention. ”
Dr. Joel Gelernter, a professor at Yale University and the study’s senior author, added that these findings regarding the link between alcohol and dementia have “clinical implications.”
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“While there was a time when medical knowledge supported the benefits of light alcohol consumption for brain health, this study provides further evidence that this is not true,” Gelernter said in a release.
This study strengthens the following assertions: Public health initiatives Researchers say the aim is to reduce alcohol consumption in the population as a whole.
“We have previously conducted brain imaging studies that showed harmful brain effects at low levels of alcohol consumption,” Topiwala told FOX News Digital.
The authors acknowledged that the study had some limitations.
“The UK study population is wealthier, healthier and less ethnically diverse than the UK population as a whole,” Topiwala said. “The U.S. sample veteransSo, again, they may not be representative of the broader population. ”
“Alcohol consumption is largely self-reported, and some people may underestimate or remember their drinking inaccurately,” she added.
The researchers also noted that the results reflected the effects of alcohol over a lifetime, rather than changes made later in life. In addition, very low drinking levels reduce the accuracy of the analysis, making it difficult to know whether small amounts of alcohol are safe.
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“Our findings highlight the importance of considering reverse causation and residual confounding. Alcohol and dementia research“And they suggest that reducing alcohol intake may be an important strategy for dementia prevention,” the authors concluded.
Topiwala added: “We hope this study will inform people of the potential risks to the brain from drinking alcohol and allow them to make their own decisions about how much risk they are willing to take.”
This research was supported by funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development, and grants from the Million Veterans Program and the Veterans Cooperative Research Program.
” genetic analysis “The authors emphasize that this is still an emerging methodology in alcohol research and should not be confused with the level of evidence that would be obtained from randomized controlled trials,” Jennifer Tujag, chief scientist at the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD) in Washington, D.C., said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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“Wider evidence shows that the risks from alcohol are complex and level- and level-dependent. drinking patterns. We emphasize that alcohol is not without risks and do not recommend drinking for health benefits. ”
Amanda Berger, senior vice president for scientific research at the Distilled Spirits Council in Washington, D.C., noted that the observational study relied on “a non-generalizable sample of U.S. veterans and middle-aged British adults.”
He also pointed to a previous study that concluded that “there was not enough evidence that moderate drinking increases the risk of neurocognitive decline compared to not drinking at all.”
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For adults who choose to drink alcohol, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting alcohol to no more than two drinks per day for men and no more than one drink per day for men. less common in womensays Berger.
“Individuals should talk to their health care provider about alcohol and decide what’s best for them based on their personal risk factors, such as family history, genetics, and lifestyle,” she added.
