Consumption of any amount of alcohol is likely to increase the risk of dementia, according to a study published online in the BMJ Evidence Based Medicine. In fact, unlike other studies, it was found that even light alcohol consumption is unlikely to reduce the risk.

This combined observational and genetic study found that the risk increases in parallel with the amount of alcohol consumed. For example, Eating three drinks per week was associated with 15% greater risk in relation to the consumption of one drink per week. On the contrary, no protective effect was observed from low alcohol consumption levels.

In addition, those who developed dementia usually drank less over the years in the years preceding their diagnosis, which suggests, according to researchers, that Early cognitive decline leads to reduced alcohol consumption And this is the basis of the supposed protective effects of alcohol.

As the researchers observe, “the pattern of reduced alcohol consumption before the diagnosis of dementia observed in our study emphasizes the complexity of drawing conclusions about the causality of observation data, especially in elderly populations.”

The researchers were based on two large biomedical databases, the US US Million Veteran Program (MVP) and the British Biobank. Participants, aged 56 to 72 years, were attended by the first diagnosis of dementia, death or completion of the attendance. The average monitoring period of about 550,000 participants was four years for the US team and twelve for the British team.

In the observational part of the study, participants reported how much they drank and the researchers compared the consumption of alcohol with the risk of dementia over time. Observatory analyzes showed that compared to those who drank a little (less than seven drinks a week), the risk of dementia was 41% higher among those who did not drink and those who drank a lot (40 or more drinks a week). In those who were addicted to alcohol, the risk was 51%.

But then, genetic analyzes were examined by 45 studies on dementia, which involved 2.4 million people. Genetic analysis resulted in the linear increase in the risk of dementia depending on how increased the consumption of alcohol was rather than the correlation of observational analysis.

“The findings of our study support the negative effect of all types of alcohol consumption on the risk of dementia, without any evidence to support the previously indicated protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption,” the researchers said.