Alzheimer's Starts Earlier For Heavy Drinkers, Smokers

Heavy drinkers and heavy
smokers develop Alzheimer's disease years earlier than people with
Alzheimer's who do not drink or smoke heavily, according to research that
will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary
Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12-19, 2008.


"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," said study author Ranjan
Duara, MD, of the Wien Center for Alzheimer's Disease at Mount Sinai
Medical Center in Miami Beach, FL, and Fellow of the American Academy of
Neurology.



"It has been projected that a delay in the onset of the disease by five
years would lead to a nearly 50-percent reduction in the total number of
Alzheimer's cases," said Duara. "In this study, we found that the
combination of heavy drinking and heavy smoking reduced the age of onset of
Alzheimer's disease by six to seven years, making these two factors among
the most important preventable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease."



The study looked at 938 people age 60 and older who were diagnosed with
possible or probable Alzheimer's disease. The researchers gathered
information from family members on drinking and smoking history and
determined whether the participants had the epsilon 4 gene variant of the
APOE gene, which increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. People with the
epsilon 4 variant also develop Alzheimer's at an earlier age than those who
do not have the gene variant.



Seven percent of the study participants had a history of heavy
drinking, which was defined as more than two drinks per day. Twenty percent
had a history of heavy smoking, which was defined as smoking one pack of
cigarettes or more per day. And 27 percent had the APOE epsilon 4 variant.



Researchers found that people who were heavy drinkers developed
Alzheimer's 4.8 years earlier than those who were not heavy drinkers. Heavy
smokers developed the disease 2.3 years sooner than people who were not
heavy smokers. People with APOE epsilon 4 developed the disease three years
sooner than those without the gene variant.



Adding the risk factors together led to earlier onset of the disease.
People who had all three risk factors developed the disease 8.5 years
earlier than those with none of the risk factors. The 17 people in the
study with all three risk factors developed Alzheimer's at an average age
of 68.5 years; the 374 people with none of the three risk factors developed
the disease at an average age of 77 years.



The study was supported by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs.



The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 21,000
neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving
patient care through education and research. A neurologist is a doctor with
specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the
brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, multiple
sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and stroke. For more information about the
American Academy of Neurology, visit aan.


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