Binge-Drinking Increases Mental Impairment In Elderly, Study Finds

This just in from the UK: Oldsters who drink up a storm risk brain damage.

A study done by British scientists found a link between binge drinking, which is defined as having four or more alcoholic beverages at one sitting, and later memory loss and cognitive decline, according to the United Kingdom Press Association.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iDvGzVv9wsvhG_FBOawc9xQB5Kwg?docId=N0271411342613774711A

The research found that those 65 and older who binge drank twice a month doubled their risk of mental impairment, the wire service reported. The results of the study were reported at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Vancouver.

The study was led by Dr. Iain Lang, who is with the University of Exeter’s Peninsula College of Medicine. The research entailed looking at data spanning eight years on more than 5,000 people 65 and older, the Press Association said. And that subjects were actually participants in a U.S. Health and Retirement Study.

“A total of 4.3 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women were in the habit of binge-drinking twice a month or more,” the Press Association reported. These people were 147 percent more likely to have the worse mental decline. The risk increased by 62 percent for those who binge drank once a month.