Environmental/nutritional risk factors Prevention of dementia
Cognitive impairment is frequently observed in heavy drinkers
and visuomotor capacity, memory or abstract thinking is affected
in those individuals. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to
alcohol-related brain damage and severe loss of short-term
memory, and is responsible for alcoholic dementia, also named
Korsakoff’s syndrome. This disease is associated with the lack
of vitamin B1, frequently associated with malnutrition in heavy
drinkers. It is assumed that light to moderate alcohol
consumption may lower the risk of cognitive decline and
dementia. The health benefit may be mediated by a protective
effect against vascular disease, as moderate alcohol consumption
lowers the risk of stroke as well as subclinical infarcts and
white matter disease on brain imaging. Binge drinking in midlife
is associated with an increased risk of dementia. There is
evidence that risk of dementia increased with rising alcohol
consumption for those people who carrie