A few drinks may keep Alzheimer’s death away

It included information on how much alcohol people with early stage dementia or Alzheimer’s drank every day.

A Danish study has shown a link between drinking two-to-three units of alcohol a day and a reduced risk of death among those with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Those who had two to three alcoholic drinks a day had a 77 percent lower risk of dying during the study period than those who had one or fewer drinks a day, the investigators found.

Henry Brodaty, co-director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at the University of NSW, urges caution about accepting the implication that we should drink several drink a day to reduce mortality.

While the researchers warned that the study’s findings are by no means conclusive, they did note that the results “point towards a potential, positive association of moderate alcohol consumption on mortality in patients with Alzheimer’s disease”.

“However, we can not exclusively, on the basis of this study, either encourage or advise against moderate alcohol consumption in (these) patients”.

Of course, this is a preliminary result but researchers in the Danish study speculate that one reason for this finding could pertain less to what patients are drinking and more on the fact that alcohol is usually a social potable. Eight per cent were teetotal, 71 per cent occasional drinkers, 17 per cent moderate drinkers and four per cent consuming more than three units a day.

There also was no difference in death risk between those who never drank alcohol and those who had three or more drinks a day.

Obviously, then, the new study-which has been published in the British Medical Journal, reinforces the potential health benefits of alcohol.

Previous research has indicated, however, that moderate drinking might not carry these risks. Unfortunately, during the study timeframe, 16.5 percent of the Alzheimer’s patients died.

“Considering Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disorder and that alcohol has known neurotoxic effects, one could easily jump to the conclusion alcohol is damaging for patients”.

The results were true even after researchers took account of other factors, including gender, age, other underlying health conditions, living alone or not, educational achievement, smoking or overall quality of life.

The reduced rate is in direct comparison to patients who had one unit or less of alcohol daily.

People with early Alzheimer’s Disease have something new to toast to: raising their glasses moderately may actually help them live longer.

The study noted small amounts may have a health preserving effect or patients with moderate alcohol intake may have a richer social network improving both quality and length of life.