Moderate drinking in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may reduce the risk of dying during early stages of the illness, according to a recent study.
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The researchers, therefore, wanted to find out if the same potentially positive association between alcohol and a reduced risk of cardiovascular death could be applied to 321 people with early stage Alzheimer’s disease who were tracked for three years.
According to spokesperson for Danish Alzheimer’s Intervention Study, the study has provided hints that drinking alcohol in moderate amount could be beneficial for people with Alzheimer’s disease, but the study doesn’t encourage people to drink alcohol. More than three alcoholic drinks a day were drunk by about 4 percent, and eight percent didn’t drink at all, the study authors reported. However, alcohol has also been proven to kill off brain cells.
Moderate alcohol intake may prevent early death with Alzheimer’s patients.
The report was published in the December 10 edition of the online journal BMJ Open.
In a new study, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System found that highly stressed participants were more than twice as likely to become impaired than those who were not.
Further research looking at the impact of alcohol on cognitive decline and disease progression in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease would be particularly informative, they concluded.
During the three-year follow-up period, 53 of the participants, (16.5per cent) died.
Nursing homes are increasingly using sight, sound and other sensory cues to stimulate memory in people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Based on NHS guidelines, women shouldn’t have more than two to three units a day and men should refrain from exceeding four.
Between patients surveyed who didn’t drink any alcohol and those who had more than three drinks a day, the researchers noted no significant difference in mortality rate.
One explanation for the finding may be that moderate drinkers have a larger social network, which has been linked to improved quality of – and possibly longer – life, the study authors suggested.
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Yet another theory is that because drinking is often a social activity, people with Alzheimer’s disease who consume alcholol are also experiencing the benefits of human interaction, which is highly beneficial for lowering feelings of loneliness and depression-both of which can be fatal in aging individuals.
