○ Drinking a day lowers the risk of dementia?

In a study of nearly 4 million Koreans, it was found that drinking one or two drinks a day lowered the risk of dementia. If you drink more than two drinks a day, your risk of dementia increases.

This is the content reported by CNN based on a thesis by researchers at Cha Hospital in Korea published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Network Open) on the 6th (local time).

Professor Jeon Geun-hye (family medicine) of CHA University Gumi Cha Hospital, the first author of the paper, said in an e-mail interview, “We found that alcohol intake was mild to moderate or less associated with a reduced risk of dementia.” Experts cautioned that the findings of the study could be controversial and need to be taken with caution.

The researchers analyzed medical records from the Korea National Health Insurance Corporation, which provides free health checkups to Koreans over the age of 40. The screening included questionnaires about drinking, smoking, and exercise habits. The total number of subjects was 3.93 million.

Based on data collected in 2009 and 2011, the researchers grouped people according to their self-reported drinking levels. People who consumed less than 15 grams of alcohol per day were classified as light drinkers. Drinking between 15 g and 29.9 g per day was classified as a moderate drinker, and drinking more than 30 g or more than 3 cups per day was classified as a heavy drinker.

The researchers also looked at whether alcohol consumption changed between 2009 and 2011. “By measuring alcohol consumption at two time points, we were able to study the relationship between reduction, cessation, maintenance, and increase in alcohol consumption and dementia,” Professor Jeon said.

The research team compared it to medical data from 2018 and selected people who had been diagnosed with dementia among the survey subjects. The researchers found that moderate drinkers were 21% less likely to develop dementia than nondrinkers when adjusting for age, gender, smoking, exercise level and other demographic factors. People who reported drinking moderately, or two drinks a day, were 17% less likely to develop dementia.

The positive pattern did not persist when alcohol consumption increased. People who drank three or more drinks a day were 8% more likely to be diagnosed with dementia. Conversely, when heavy drinkers moderated their drinking, the risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease was reduced by 12%, and the risk of all-cause dementia was reduced by 8%.

“There has been no scientific report that moderate drinking is associated with a reduced risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease,” the researchers said. Professor Jeon said, “Since this study was an observational study, no causal relationship could be identified. Further research is needed to confirm the correlation because the results of the study on light alcohol intake cannot be directly converted into clinical recommendations.” said.

Richard Isaacson, a researcher at the Florida Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases in the US, who reviewed the paper, said, “This study was well conducted with about 4 million subjects, but you should not overinterpret the results and drink right away. ” he pointed out. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol consumption can be a risk factor for breast and other cancers, and over time, heavy drinking can lead to digestive problems, heart and liver disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and a weakened immune system.

According to a study published in March of last year, drinking just one glass of beer or wine a day can reduce overall brain volume, and damage increases as the amount of alcohol consumed per day increases. A previous study also found that people aged 40 to 69 who drank 1 pint of beer or 6 ounces of wine a day for a month had brains that looked 2 years older than those who drank less than half that amount.

Isaacson said the findings need to be accepted given that people aren’t good at judging how much alcohol they’re drinking and that even moderate drinkers often binge on weekends. “Personally, I wouldn’t recommend a person who has quit drinking to drink moderate amounts again,” he said.

The paper can be found at the following link (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800994?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=020623).