According to a new study, excessive drinking in middle age can result in memory loss later in life.
Researchers asked 6,542 middle-aged Americans about their alcohol consumption in the past and evaluated their mental functions for eight years.
For the study, University of Exeter researchers in England analyzed the records from a longitudinal research which tracked the health of Americans born from 1931 to 1941. The 50- and 60-year-old participants answered an alcohol questionnaire in their first interview and had a follow-up cognitive assessment every two years between 1996 and 2010.
To be categorized under having a drinking problem, a participant must answer yes to two or more of the four questions in a commonly used screening test for alcoholism. The questions asked if the participant has ever felt he or she should reduce his or her drinking; if people have ever annoyed him or her through their criticisms on his or her drinking; if he or she has ever felt guilty about drinking; and if he or she have ever had a drink as soon as they woke up in the morning.
The researchers found that people with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) increased their risk of developing severe memory impairment by more than 50 percent. Only 16 percent said that they had a drinking problem at one point. These people were more likely to exhibit memory problems on the word-recall tests.
"We already know there is an association between dementia risk and levels of current alcohol consumption -- that understanding is based on asking older people how much they drink and then observing whether they develop problems," lead researcher Dr. Iain Lang said. "But this is only one part of the puzzle and we know little about the consequences of alcohol consumption earlier in life."
Researchers advise people to drink only within the recommended weekly and daily amounts and to reduce this if they are affected by any of the aforementioned questions, because drinking could increase their risk of dementia.
Experts say that there is a hidden cost of alcohol abuse with the mounting evidence that misuse may impact one's cognition in the future. They also said that one in three cognitive impairment cases in late life may be reversible or preventable with reducing drinking and unwanted pounds, regular exercise, regular sleep and giving up smoking.
