Excessive drinking may be linked to early dementia risk: French study

Heavy drinkers may be more likely than other adults to develop dementia, especially in middle age, a French study suggests.
 
For the study, researchers examined data from 2008-2013 on more than 31 million French hospital patients, including more than 1 million who were diagnosed with dementia. About 5 per cent of the dementia patients had so-called early onset dementia that started before age 65, and most of these cases were alcohol-related, the study found.
 
“Chronic heavy drinking was the most important modifiable risk factor for dementia onset in both genders and remained so after controlling for all known