Excessive Alcohol Use Linked to Early-Onset Dementia Risk

A new study published in Lancet Public Health found the risk of developing early-onset dementia could be elevated by excessive alcohol consumption, reports CNN . The researchers examined the French National Hospital Discharge database to determine alcohol-use disorders were diagnosed in 16.5 percent of men with dementia and 4 percent of women with dementia. "The most novel result is the large contribution of alcohol-use disorders to the burden of dementia over the lifespan," says Dr. Michael Schwarzinger at the Transitional Health Economics Network in Paris. The connection was especially strong for people with early-onset dementia, diagnosed when they were younger than 65. More than 50 percent of those in the early-onset group had alcohol-related dementia or an additional diagnosis of alcohol-use disorder. When other variables were not controlled for, heavy drinking was linked to a higher risk of dementia among both men and women. The risk rose by a factor of 4.7 in men, and by a factor of 4.3 in women. Even when the team controlled for factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, and tobacco smoking, heavy alcohol use was still associated with a more than threefold increase in dementia among both genders. "Men have a poorer lifestyle than women on average, in particular heavier alcohol consumption," Schwarzinger notes. "Therefore, it is somewhat unsurprising that early-onset dementia identifies a cluster of men with alcohol use disorders."