People Who Don’t Drink Any Alcohol More Likely to Develop Dementia [???]
August 1st, 2018Via: Independent:
People who are teetotal in middle age are at greater risk of developing dementia than those who drink moderate amounts, with benefits particularly apparent in wine drinkers, a new study has found.
Researchers found abstinence was associated with a 45 per cent increase in the chances of getting dementia by early old age, compared to those who drank within recommended limits – up to a bottle and a half of wine a week.
People who drank above the 14 unit guideline were also at increased risk, the team from University College London and French institute for health, Inserm, found. Their risk of developing dementia increased incrementally the more alcohol they were consuming.
“We show that both long term alcohol abstinence and excessive alcohol consumption may increase the risk of dementia,” the authors of the study, published in the British Medical Journal, wrote. “Given the number of people living with dementia is expected to triple by 2050 and the absence of a cure, prevention is key.”
Among abstainers, the study also found increased risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These are both conditions which could contribute to dementia, a collective term for the loss of memory, thinking and other cognitive functions, and the leading cause of death in the UK.
Moderate alcohol consumption has previously been shown to help protect against these conditions, by reducing cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and it may be this which is responsible for the dementia protecting benefit.
In his book “While Science Sleeps, a Sweetener Kills,” Dr Woodrow Monte explains why small amounts of ethanol (drinking alcohol) counteracts methanol toxicity and is thus neuroprotective.
Abstainers are much more likely to be poor and working class. Moderate drinkers who stay at 1-2 glasses are more likely to be in the top 20%. I wonder if they could correctly control for that factor. Jobs requiring drug tests tend to be working class too, for example, so they are less likely to smoke marijuana even if it is legal