A study of over 4 million South Koreans found that limiting alcohol use to one or two drinks per day decreased the risk of dementia.
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However, a study released on Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open found that exceeding two drinks per day enhanced that risk.
First author Dr. Keun Hye Jeon, an assistant professor at CHA Gumi Medical Center, CHA University in Gumi, South Korea, said in an email, “We found that maintaining mild to moderate alcohol consumption as well as reducing alcohol consumption from a heavy to moderate level were associated with a decreased risk of dementia.”
But experts advise against rushing to the booze store.
According to Dr. Richard Isaacson, a preventive neurologist at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases of Florida and an expert in Alzheimer’s disease, “This study was well done and is extremely robust with 4 million subjects, but we need be cautious not to over interpret the findings.” He wasn’t a part of the recent investigation.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drinking too much alcohol over time can cause digestive issues, heart and liver disease, hypertension, stroke, and a weakened immune system. Alcohol usage can also be a risk factor for breast and other malignancies.
There are many warning signs of Alzheimer’s. For instance, Isaacson advised against drinking if you carry one or two copies of the APOE4 gene mutation, which increases your risk of acquiring the disease that robs you of your mind.
About 25% of the US population contains one copy of APOE4, which has been found to have negative effects on brain outcomes in those at risk.
Calculating alcohol consumption
According to specialists, there is a complex and ambiguous relationship between alcohol use and health.
According to specialists, there is a complex and ambiguous relationship between alcohol use and health.
The new study looked at the medical records of those covered by the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), which offers insured South Koreans aged 40 and over a free health exam twice a year. Examiners also enquired about each person’s drinking, smoking, and fitness habits in addition to administering numerous tests.
The study examined data gathered between 2009 and 2011 and divided participants into groups based on their self-reported drinking habits. People were classified as “moderate” drinkers if they claimed to consume less than 15 grams (about 0.5 ounces) of alcohol per day.
Typically, a drink in the United States has 14 grams of alcohol in it, which is equivalent to 12 ounces of ordinary beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.
Researchers classified study participants as “moderate” drinkers if they disclosed to doctors that they consumed between 15 and 29.9 grams of alcohol per day, or around two standard drinks in the US. Additionally, researchers deemed persons “heavy” drinkers if they reported consuming more than 30 grams of alcohol, or three or more drinks per day.
Researchers also looked at whether people’s drinking habits remained the same or altered between 2009 and 2011, according to Jeon.
We were able to investigate the association between decreasing, discontinuing, maintaining, and growing alcohol intake and incident dementia by monitoring alcohol consumption at two time points, the author added.
After then, the researchers checked medical records from 2018 — seven or eight years later — to determine if any of the people they had previously investigated had been given a dementia diagnosis.
Researchers discovered that those who reported drinking at a modest level throughout time, or around one drink per day, were 21% less likely to develop dementia than those who never drank. This was true even after accounting for age, sex, smoking, degree of physical activity, and other demographic characteristics.
According to the study, people who reported continuing to drink moderately—roughly two drinks per day—were 17% less likely to acquire dementia.
When analyzing studies based on medical records, one must exercise caution. In terms of how diseases are recorded and investigated, they can be difficult, according to Isaacson. “There is always a chance of memory problems when you ask someone to recollect their actions, like drinking.”
the risks of drinking more frequently over time
As drinking escalated, the favorable pattern ceased. According to the study, people who drank frequently—three or more drinks per day—were 8% more likely to be given a dementia diagnosis.
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Heavy drinkers had a 12% lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease and an 8% lower chance of developing dementia from any cause if they gradually cut back on their drinking to a moderate level.
But according to Isaacson, people struggle to gauge how much alcohol they are consuming.
For instance, people don’t actually watch how much wine they pour, according to Isaacson. “They may believe they are drinking a standard-sized wine glass, but every time they actually consume a glass and a half. They have drunk three glasses of wine if they consume two of those pours. That is not modest or moderate consumption anymore.
Additionally, a lot of people who consider themselves moderate drinkers only indulge on the weekends. Studies reveal that binge drinking is on the rise everywhere, including among adults.
It would be considered a moderate alcohol intake, according to Isaacson, if a person had five drinks each on Saturday and Sunday. “To me, that is not the same as having a glass of wine with dinner five days a week, which slows consumption,” said the author.
The current study also discovered a link between light drinking at first and a lower risk of Alzheimer’s and all-cause dementia, “which, to our knowledge, has never been reported in previous investigations,” the authors said.
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But according to Jeon, “none of the current health recommendations supports beginning alcohol consumption.” She said that since the study was observational, cause and effect could not be established.
Additional research is need to confirm these relationships further, according to Jeon, because “our findings about an initiation of light alcohol intake cannot be easily transferred into clinical advice.”
According to a March 2022 study, drinking even one pint of beer or glass of wine a day can cause the brain’s overall volume to decrease, with the harm getting worse the more often you drink.
According to a previous study, participants between the ages of 40 and 69 who drank a pint of beer or a 6-ounce glass of wine every day for a month looked to have brains that were two years older than those who drank only half a beer.
If a person was abstaining from alcohol, Isaacson stated, “I’ve never personally counseled that somebody start consuming moderate amounts of alcohol.” But there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all strategy for counseling a patient about alcohol use.