Yesterday, I walked through the garage at the assisted living development where my mother lives. When I got to the elevator, I bumped into a 20-something pushing a cart loaded with six cases of wine, two of which were alcohol free. We waited side by side for the elevator to take us up to the lobby, when he said, “Boy, these old people can drink.” I agreed, then pointed out that my mother is one of the non-alcoholic wine drinkers. Didn’t feel the need to explain the how or why, and after we exited we said our “Have a good day” and walked in our separate directions.
Over the last several years, I have watched my mother’s memory come and go, lapse and return. She has had an MRI of her brain and does not have Alzheimer’s. But she does have a form of dementia that is, according to her doctor, related to heavy alcohol use in past years.
A study conducted in Brazil focused specifically on cognitive problems caused by heavy alcohol use among 1,145 people who were 60 years old or older. The study found that 8.2 percent of the 419 men and 726 women studied were heavy drinkers, or drinking at levels that are considered high risk. (For women, heavy drinking is four drinks or more during a day or more than seven drinks a week.)
One of the more surprising findings of the study was that heavy drinking affects the cognitive function of women more than men. “The effects of heavy alcohol use on memory and other cognitive functions were more evident in women,” said Marcos Antonio Lopes, the author of the study. “Our findings suggest that alcohol use does not have a linear relationship with cognitive decline.”
In other words, women who continue to drink heavily into their senior years run the risks of losing cognitive function and are more prone therefore to falls and significant memory loss.
