Alcohol and dementia

Around one in fourteen people over 65 in the UK are living with dementia - a group of conditions that can affect your memory and the way you speak, think, feel and behave.¹

But dementia isn’t a natural part of ageing. There are many factors which increase your risk, including lifestyle² – like how much exercise you get, your diet or if you drink heavily, as well as things you can’t change - like your age or genes.

What is dementia?

Dementia is the collective term for a range of symptoms and signs related to the progressive decline of brain functions including memory, thinking skills, language, mood and movement.³

There are many types of dementia - the most common are Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Dementia is most common amongst people over 65, although there are some rarer types which can affect people from the age of around 40 onwards.⁴

One thing all types of dementia have in common is that they are ‘progressive’ diseases. This means they get worse over time, although there are treatments available that can help relieve some symptoms if started soon enough.

Find out more about dementia on the NHS website

Does drinking alcohol increase the risk of developing dementia?

Every time you drink alcohol, it affects your brain. For example, it can make you feel less inhibited and less able to make clear judgments.

If you regularly drink more than the Chief Medical Officers’ UK low risk drinking guidelines and - in particular - if you binge drink repeatedly, you're risking long-term effects for your brain and mental health, and increasing your chance of developing dementia.

If you choose to drink alcohol, you should stick to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines. Both men and women shouldn’t drink more than 14 units a week – with any drinking spread over three or more days, with several drink-free days every week, and no bingeing.

Recent research has found that the risk of dementia was increased in people who regularly consumed more than 14 units of alcohol per week.⁵ A pattern of heavy drinking also increases the risk of experiencing symptoms of dementia at a younger age (known as ‘young-onset dementia’).⁶ 

Repeatedly consuming a large quantity of alcohol in a short time (known as binge drinking, or heavy session drinking) has been shown to be associated with increased risk of developing dementia,^7,8 as well as affecting negatively your mood, memory and mental health.⁹

Binge drinking means drinking heavily over a short space of time. More than 8 units of alcohol in a single session for males, or more than 6 units in a single session for females is the technical definition.¹⁰ That’s equivalent to about four pints of normal strength beer for a man or three pints for a woman.

Evidence to date suggests that modest alcohol consumption - that is, drinking less than the CMOs' low risk guidance (no more than 14 units per week, without bingeing, and having several drink-free days) - appears to carry no increased risk of dementia. However, all the other health risks associated with regularly drinking alcohol remain.

For people over 60, there is recent evidence of a slightly higher risk of dementia among people who don’t drink alcohol at all, compared to those who drink. But the study concluded that the negative impact of alcohol on overall brain and physical health means that if you don’t drink already, you shouldn't start.¹¹

Find out more about binge drinking

Alcohol-related brain damage

Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) is damage caused to the brain because of regular heavy drinking or repeated binge drinking over several years¹² (It’s also sometimes called ‘alcohol-related brain injury’).

The toxic effect of alcohol can be particularly damaging for brain cells in a part of the brain called the hippocampus.¹³ Damage to this part of the brain – which regulates your emotions and behavioural responses, and contributes to learning and memory – is frequently an early sign of dementia.

Alcohol-related dementia

Alcohol-related dementia is one of a range of conditions that result from alcohol-related brain damage – but it is different to the other progressive forms of dementia, like Alzheimer’s Disease.

That’s because although alcohol-related dementia has many of the same symptoms, in some cases the signs and symptoms of dementia do not progress if the person stops drinking completely and permanently soon after alcohol-related dementia is diagnosed.¹⁴

If you have any physical withdrawal symptoms (for example shaking, sweating, or nausea) before you have your first drink of the day, it’s essential to get medical advice before you stop drinking completely. It can be dangerous to stop drinking too quickly without proper support if you have any of these symptoms.
Am I alcohol dependent?

How to stop drinking alcohol completely

Wernicke’s Encephalopathy

Another serious brain illness caused by alcohol is called Wernicke’s Encephalopathy. This is caused when sustained heavy drinking leads to malnourishment, causing the brain to be short of the vitamin B1 (also known as thiamine), which is vital for your body to break down carbohydrates. Symptoms can happen suddenly and include problems with balance, confusion and problems with vision.

If Wernicke’s Encephalopathy isn’t treated it can be life threatening and lead to permanent brain damage. And if the treatment doesn’t happen quickly enough, it can also lead to a more long-term condition called Korsakoff’s Syndrome, which has similar symptoms to dementia – causing problems with concentration, memory and learning.¹⁵

Korsakoff Syndrome

Korsakoff Syndrome is similar to dementia and can permanently damage your recent memory and balance. This is caused when sustained heavy drinking leads to malnourishment causing the brain to be short of the vital vitamin B1 – also known as thiamine. 

An early sign of all these types of alcohol-related dementia is a tendency to rigid, inflexible thinking. Other symptoms which happen as the disease progresses include a worsening short-term memory, and finding that learning new skills becomes harder.

In common with many other health harms caused by alcohol, the likelihood of developing these problems increases the more you drink over time. And stopping drinking completely may in some cases be followed by limited improvement.¹⁶ 

Find out more about how alcohol affects the brain