Alcohol Factor In Early Onset Dementia

The long tern of effects of alcohol use can be detrimental to the brain according to new research conducted in Sweden. Early-onset dementia is a possible risk of alcohol abuse, HealthDay reports.

Medical standards consider early-onset dementia as occurring before the age of 65. 

488,484 men drafted at about age 18 into the Swedish military over a 10-year period were studied. Over approximately 37 years researchers followed the test subjects. In that time period 487 men developed early-onset dementia, at an average age of 54.

Alcohol is not the only risk factor causing early-onset dementia, other risk factors include:

• Drug abuse
• Antipsychotic drugs
• Stroke
• High blood pressure
• Depression
• Having a father with dementia
• Poor mental functioning as a teen
• Being short

Men had a 20-fold increased risk if they had at least two of these risk factors and were in the lowest third of overall mental ability.

“These risk factors were multiplicative, most were potentially modifiable, and most could be traced to adolescence, suggesting excellent opportunities for early prevention,” the researchers wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.

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