Men who are habitual heavy drinkers, downing more than two pints of beer every day, are likely to start having the sort of memory lapses that are commonly associated with aging up to six years early, according to a new study.
The long-term effect of alcohol on the brain has not been extensively researched. Most studies have looked at elderly people, who have usually stopped or considerably reduced their drinking.
The paper by scientists at University College London published in the journal Neurology looks at the drinking habits of a large group of middle-aged men and women, and their performance in cognitive functioning tests — how well they think and remember things — 10 years later.
It appears to show that heavy drinking, at least in men, leads to significant deterioration over the long term. Not enough women in the study were heavy drinkers for the scientists to conclude that the same things were happening to them.
The researchers, led by Severine Sabia of the department of epidemiology and public health, analyzed data that had been generated by the Whitehall II study, a massive group of civil servants whose health has been investigated over many years.
They focused on more than 5,000 men and 2,000 women who were aged 45 to 69 at the beginning of the study. Their drinking habits were assessed three times over a decade. They took memory and executive function tests on three occasions. Executive functioning includes reasoning, task flexibility and problem-solving ability.
Heavy-drinking men — defined in the study as those who drank more than 36g of alcohol a day — began to suffer memory failures and deterioration in their cognitive processes between 18 months and six years earlier than those who drank less. Light and moderate drinkers did not show declines.
“These latest results could serve as one more reason to stick to any New Year’s resolutions to cut back on alcohol,” said Simon Ridley, head of research at the dementia research charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. “Observational studies such as this can be important for identifying factors that may influence the risk of memory decline or disease, but it’s difficult to pinpoint cause and effect with this type of research.”
“The people in this study did not have dementia, but memory decline can be a precursor to dementia and understanding the risk factors for this decline could be important for preventing the condition,” he said. “This large study has yielded useful results, although it’s not clear how far the findings from this group of civil servants can be generalized to the wider population. It’s crucial to continue investing in research if we are to understand how to keep our brains healthy as we age and prevent the diseases that cause dementia.”
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS