Drinking and Smoking Lead to Earlier Alzheimers, Studies Show

By Anastacia Mott Austin

We knew our lifestyles would catch up with us sooner or later.

It’s sooner, say a cluster of new studies released this week, if people don’t amend their ways and make healthier choices earlier in life.

Baby boomers who are living it up now by drinking heavily, smoking, and eating a fatty diet may live to regret their lifestyle choices later…though they won’t remember it.

Two studies released this week at the American Academy of Neurology's 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago showed that people who drink heavily (more than two drinks per day), smoke (a half-pack or more per day), or who have high cholesterol (from 249-500) in their forties will be likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease years earlier than their healthier counterparts.

The first study’s lead author was researcher Ranjan Duara, MD, from the Wien Center for Alzheimer's Disease at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Florida. Duara’s study looked at the drinking and smoking habits of over 900 subjects with preliminary diagnoses of pre-Alzheimers, who were all 60 years or older.

The results revealed that those who drank heavily developed Alzheimer’s disease almost five years earlier than moderate drinkers.

Those who smoked the equivalent of a half-pack of cigarettes per day or more developed the disease about 2.3 years before those who smoked less or not at all.

"The current thinking is that the pathology of Alzheimer's disease builds up over many years before clinical symptoms are manifest," said Duara to reporters. "People who start with a good cognitive reserve, who remain active mentally, are able to compensate for the pathology of the brain for a much longer period of time."

The study also looked at participants who carried a mutated form of a gene – called ApoE-4 – and revealed that those who had the gene developed Alzheimer’s about three years sooner than those without the gene mutation.

Those will all three risk factors – heavy drinking, smoking, and the altered gene – developed Alzheimer’s about 8.5 years earlier than those without any of the risk factors.

A second study followed 9,700 people and showed that those who had high cholesterol in their forties were one and a half times more likely to receive a later diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

Those with cholesterol numbers of 249-500mg were one and a half times more likely to be later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s than those with normal or low levels. Those who had cholesterol levels from 221-249mg were one and a quarter times more likely to develop the disease.

"High mid-life cholesterol increased the risk of Alzheimer's disease regardless of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and late-life stroke," said that study’s lead author Alina Solomon.

Dr. Duara said that if people at risk reduced their unhealthy behaviors, with the resulting delayed onset there would be a 50% reduction in the number of cases of Alzheimer’s at any given time.

Said Duara to reporters, "These results are significant because it's possible that if we can reduce or eliminate heavy smoking and drinking, we could substantially delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease for people and reduce the number of people who have Alzheimer's at any point in time."