{"id":1010,"date":"2004-11-01T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-01T14:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jaydub.cms-devl.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/2004\/01\/01\/the-relationship-between-alcohol-intake-and-cognitive-function\/"},"modified":"2017-01-31T11:47:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:47:21","slug":"the-relationship-between-alcohol-intake-and-cognitive-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/2004\/11\/01\/the-relationship-between-alcohol-intake-and-cognitive-function\/","title":{"rendered":"The  Relationship Between Alcohol Intake and Cognitive Function"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"research-summary-body\">\n                    <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"contents\" -->  <\/p>\n<p>Studies<br \/>\n  examining alcohol&#8217;s impact on cognitive impairment have produced<br \/>\n  varying results. To clarify the relationships between midlife alcohol<br \/>\n  consumption, and mild cognitive impairment and dementia in old<br \/>\n  age, researchers from Finland randomly selected subjects from a<br \/>\n  population-based study in the 1970s and re-examined them in 1998.<br \/>\n  Of these 1018 men and women aged 65\u201379 years, 61 developed<br \/>\n  mild cognitive impairment (based on various diagnostic criteria)<br \/>\n  and 48 were diagnosed with dementia. Analyses were adjusted for<br \/>\n  potential confounders (e.g., age, sex, body mass index, other cardiovascular<br \/>\n  risk factors).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The<br \/>\n  relationship between alcohol frequency at baseline and subsequent<br \/>\n  mild cognitive impairment was U-shaped: non-drinkers and frequent<br \/>\n  drinkers (those who consumed alcohol several times per month)<br \/>\n  had significantly higher risk of cognitive impairment (relative<br \/>\n  risks, RRs, 2.2 and 2.6, respectively) than did infrequent drinkers. <\/li>\n<li>Alcohol<br \/>\n  frequency was significantly related to dementia only among carriers<br \/>\n  of the apolipoprotein E4 allele. Carriers who were infrequent<br \/>\n  or frequent drinkers had a higher risk (RRs 2.3 and 3.6, respectively)<br \/>\n  than did non-carriers who did not drink.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!-- InstanceEndEditable --><\/p>\n<div class=\"research-summary-footnotes-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"footnotes-1\" --><!-- InstanceEndEditable -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"research-summary-comments\">Comments:<\/h2>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"comments\" --><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, this study suffers from very small numbers (e.g., totals of only 14\u201317 subjects with dementia in each alcohol<br \/>\n  category) and inadequate estimates of alcohol use (e.g.,<br \/>\n  no data on amount consumed). Further, frequent drinkers\u201468%<br \/>\n  of whom drank only 1\u20132 times per month\u2014were<br \/>\n  defined quite differently in this study than in others.<br \/>\n  Nonetheless, the results do suggest that apolipoprotein<br \/>\n  E4 status modifies alcohol&#8217;s influence on dementia. Beyond<br \/>\n  that, better studies are needed to elucidate the relationship<br \/>\n  between moderate drinking and cognitive health.<\/p>\n<p><!-- InstanceEndEditable --><br \/>\n                    <cite><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"name\" -->  R.<br \/>\n  Curtis Ellison, MD<!-- InstanceEndEditable --><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/cite><\/p>\n<div class=\"research-summary-footnotes\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"footnotes\" --><!-- InstanceEndEditable -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<h2>Reference:<\/h2>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"reference\" --><\/p>\n<p>Anttila T, Helkala EL, Viitanen M, et al. Alcohol drinking in middle age and subsequent risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia in old age: a prospective population based study. <em>BMJ. <\/em> 2004;329(7465):539.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/bmj.bmjjournals.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/329\/7465\/539\" target=\"_blank\">(view<br \/>\n  full article)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- InstanceEndEditable -->\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Studies examining alcohol&#8217;s impact on cognitive impairment have produced varying results. To clarify the relationships between midlife alcohol consumption, and mild cognitive impairment and dementia in old age, researchers from Finland randomly selected subjects from a population-based study in the 1970s and re-examined them in 1998. Of these 1018 men and women aged 65\u201379 years, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2243,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/2243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/aodhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}