According to an Inserm study conducted in collaboration with Canadian researchers, excessive alcohol consumption would triple the risk of dementia and double the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. “Excessive” alcohol consumption corresponds to 6 or more drinks per day for men and 4 for women.
“While some studies suggest a protective effect of low to moderate alcohol consumption on cognitive function, few data allow working on high consumption. In fact, alcoholics refuse, in most cases, to participate in medical research cohorts “ underlines Inserm.
A greater risk than tobacco or hypertension
To get around this problem, the researchers used information from the Information Systems Medicalization Program, which provides information on all the causes of hospitalization. From this database, they identified 31.6 million adults hospitalized between 2008 and 2013, including 1.3 million
were affected by a form of dementia and 950,000 had excessive alcohol consumption. This allowed them to find excessive alcohol consumption in 57% of early dementias and in 8% of dementias occurring after 65 years.
Inserm researchers believe that this is a more important risk factor than smoking or high blood pressure.
“We believe that alcohol could precipitate the onset of these diseases and accelerate their
progression by increasing structural and functional damage in the brain “, explain the authors of this study.
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