Increased risk for all-cause dementia in people who abstain from alcohol | Hacker News Reader

Increased risk for all-cause dementia in people who abstain from alcohol

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

23 pointsdonsupreme18 comments

The authors take pains to point out that alcohol is still definitely bad for you overall, and they also point out that heavy alcohol use is known to cause dementia. I'd say it's a fairly safe bet that this is a statistic artifact, and even if it isn't you still shouldn't start drinking.

>While light to moderate alcohol use may reduce dementia risk, even low levels of alcohol use have been associated with reduced brain volume, grey matter atrophy and increased white matter hyperintensities [5, 44, 45], indicating that alcohol use is unlikely to be directly neuroprotective. In addition, light-to-moderate alcohol use has been associated with other health conditions, including some cancers [46], cautioning against recommending the commencement of alcohol use in those who abstain.

>There is evidence from other sources, such as hospital-based studies, which indicate that heavy alcohol use and alcohol use disorders are strongly and causally associated with dementia (particularly young onset dementia) [7], as well as neurocognitive diseases where alcohol use is a contributing or necessary factor (i.e. alcohol-related dementia and Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome) [8].

This seems like a classic case of correlation vs causation (I only skimmed the abstract). Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into another tabloid article.

Right? Two obvious causal links would be stronger and more numerous social ties lead to both increased social drinking and decreased risk of dementia.

I am not qualified to read the data well, but one of my immediate thoughts was "Well if you live long enough you're basically guaranteed dementia, perhaps abstaining from alcohol helps you get that old?"

This would be a literal example of survivorship bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

> Well if you live long enough you're basically guaranteed dementia

Not true; I'm sure there is a relationship between age and prevalence of dementia, but it's far from a guarantee.

I've known too many centennials of surprisingly sound mind, and they eventually start having falls and the body can't heal sufficiently to fully recover.

Once the dementia sets in, though, that's another story. The aging process seems to advance quicker when dementia is present.

It has been shown moderate alcohol use increases lifespan.

It's false because fairly low alcohol consumption correlates with a slighty longer life span:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-11427-x

(Unfortunately it increases the risk of some cancers, too.)

Considering the number of authors, it might be more appropriate to default to an assumption of competence and basic knowledge of their subject in there somewhere.

I always sort of assumed that since we know stress is a major factor in health, that moderate drinking probably has an overall beneficial effect due to the stress reduction, even if the physical effect of the alcohol itself is slightly negative. Like maybe you get a -2 modifier for consuming alcohol and a +5 modifier for stress reduction and so you end up ahead. Same goes for the likely added benefit to social interactions, unless you're drinking alone in the basement.

Then again, I'm pretty far from a scientist so I'm just spit-balling here.

Did they control for social drinking vs. solitary drinking?

That's interesting and a very good point. There are definitive links between solidarity and dementia.

Perhaps you meant isolation rather than solidarity.

Interesting indeed...

> Experimental evidence in animal models is consistent with this observational research, confirming the neurotoxicity of heavy alcohol use and the protective effects of alcohol at low doses.

> increased dementia risk associated with abstaining was evident after controlling for relevant demographic and clinical characteristics

Nice. I’ll have 9 beers to celebrate this news.

Time for some prevention.

Selection bias of some sort from people who abstain from alcohol?

Binge drinking all the way down

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