Do you think drinking wine protects your mind? Think again

The research indicates that drinking alcohol – which is generally believed to be preventive, based on observation -based studies – is unlikely to reduce the risks, which rises along with the amount of alcohol consumed, as the research indicates.

Current thinking indicates that there may be an “perfect dose” of alcohol for brain health, but most of these studies have focused on the elderly and/or did not differentiate between non -former buyers and others for life, making efforts to the conclusion of causation, the researchers note.

To try to navigate these issues and enhance the rule of evidence, the researchers relied on observation data and genetic methods (random distribution of Mandelian) of two large biological salaries for the entire “dose” range of alcohol consumption.

These veteran programs were in the United States (MVP), which includes people of European and African origin and Latin America, and the biological joint in the UK (UKB), which often includes people of European origin.

Participants between the ages of 56-72 were mainly monitored from employment to the first diagnosis of dementia, their death, or the last follow-up date (December 2019 for MVP and January 2022 for UKB), which came first. The average monitoring period was 4 years for the American Group and 12 for the UK Group.

Alcohol consumption was derived from the questionnaire responses-more than 90 % of the participants said they drank alcohol-and the tool for definition of alcohol-c alcohol disorders (Audit-C). These screens are for dangerous drinking patterns, including the frequency of drinking grain (6 or more drinks at one time).

In general, 559,559 participants from both groups in monitoring analyzes, 14,540 of them developed dementia of any kind during the monitoring period: 10,564 in the American Group; And 3976 in the UK group. And 48,034 died: 28,738 in the American Group and 19296 in the UK Group.

Note analyzes revealed that U -shaped connections between alcohol and dementia: compared to light participants (less than 7 drinks per week) The 41 % higher risk was observed between non -drinks and drinks who consume 40 or more drinks per week, and rose to 51 % higher risk among those who rely on alcohol.

Mandalist indiscriminate genetic analyzes have been based on the main data of large individual correlation studies (GWAS) of dementia, including a total of 2.4 million participants to verify the genetically predicted risks (instead of the current).

Mandelian random distribution takes advantage of genetic data, which reduces the effect of other factors that are likely to be influential, to estimate causal effects: the genetic risk of features (in this case, alcohol consumption) stands mainly for the same features.

Three genetic measures related to the use of alcohol were used as different exposure, to study the effect on the danger of dementia for the amount of alcohol, as well as problematic and approved drinking.

These were exposure: The weekly weekly drinks (641 independent genetic variables); Drinking “risky” problematic (80 genetic species); And dependence on alcohol (66 genetic variables).

The high genetic risk of all three levels of exposure has been associated with an increase in the risk of dementia, with a linear increased dementia whenever alcohol consumption increases.

For example, an additional drink 1-3 per week has been associated with 15 % higher risks. Double is associated with the risk of alcohol dependence, with a 16 % increase at the risk of dementia.

However, no U U -shaped correlation was found between alcohol and dementia, and no preventive effects of low levels of alcohol intake. Instead, the risk of dementia has increased steadily with more genetically drinking.

Moreover, those who have continued to develop dementia usually drink less over time in the years before their diagnosis, indicating that the reverse relationship – where early cognitive decrease leads to low alcohol consumption – lies in the supposed preventive effects of alcohol in previous observed studies, the researchers say.

They acknowledge that the main restrictions of their results is that the most powerful statistical associations were found in European origin, due to the number of participants in this ethnic heritage that he studied. And add.

However, they suggest that their findings “challenge the idea that low alcohol levels are nervous protection.”

They concluded the following: “The results of our study supports the harmful effect of all types of alcohol consumption on the risk of dementia, with no evidence that supports the pre -proposed preventive effect of moderate drinking.

“The lower alcohol use pattern before diagnosing dementia that was observed in our study confirms the complexity of the causal conclusion from monitoring data, especially in the advanced population.

“The results that we have reached are the importance of looking at the opposite relationship and the remaining confusion in alcohol and dementia studies, and they point out that reducing alcohol consumption may be an important strategy to prevent dementia.”