Heavy drinking. Given this is France, what is heavy drinking?
It's defined in the article. Around 4-5 standard drinks a day for Men or 3 for Women. Which is quite a bit of drinking.
Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
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Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#12The title doesn't seem accurate. The summary says:"Alcohol use disorders are the most important preventable risk factors... "
Furthermore, the article states:"This study looked specifically at the effect of alcohol use disorders, and included people who had been diagnosed with mental and behavioural disorders or chronic diseases that were attributable to chronic harmful use of alcohol."
So while I'm quite convinced that prolonged alcohol abuse has serious consequences, I don't think the claim that it is the single biggest risk factor of dementia across the population is supported by this study, as described by the article linked anyway.
Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#13Heavy drinking. Given this is France, what is heavy drinking?
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Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#14Heavy drinking. Given this is France, what is heavy drinking?
It's defined in the article. Around 4-5 standard drinks a day for Men or 3 for Women. Which is quite a bit of drinking.
Where 1 "Canadian standard drink" is 1 bottle of beer, 1 glass of wine or 1 shot of liquor.
Source: http://www.rethinkyourdrinking.ca/what-is-a-standard-drink/
Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#15I am surprised it's not age...
Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#16Of course, people who drink that much may have other issues that lead to said dementia, and alcohol use was a (poor) self-medication.
Then again, that is a lot of alcohol. Bound to have some negative effect.
Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#17Heavy drinking. Given this is France, what is heavy drinking?
It's defined in the article. Around 4-5 standard drinks a day for Men or 3 for Women. Which is quite a bit of drinking.
Thank you, I went straight to the paper where the definition was a bit more hidden.
That is interesting:
Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#18Getting mixed messages here! Also today: http://www.newsweek.com/drinking-alcohol-tied-long-life-new-...
Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#19*Alcohol abuse is largest risk factor
> Most reviews point to a possible beneficial effect of light-to-moderate drinking on cognitive health... By contrast, heavy drinking seems detrimentally related to dementia risk, whatever the dementia type.
Re: Alcohol use disorder largest risk factor for dementia
#20The scientific article states alcohol use disorder, not alcohol use. The scientific article is about early onset dementia, not all dementia. The scientific article uses a large sample size, but the entire population is French. I would rewrite the title "Alcohol use disorder is the largest risk factor for early onset dementia in French population."
I'm not French and I am not close to anyone who is, so there is nothing in here of any possible relevance to me?
While there are a lot of posters here eager to point out the limits to what this study formally investigates, the inclusion of the French dimension underscores my suspicion that finding a reason to regard this study as irrelevant to one's specific circumstances is not the best way of looking at it.