The Connection Between Alcohol and Dementia

Dr. Jim Applegate joins us to discuss the connection between heavy alcohol use and dementia. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As a conversation starter about alcohol in general. A study
is out that looks at heavy alcohol use and dementia
and maybe even in your past. This is West Michigan's
Morning News, Steve Kelly, I see Lauren Smith and Brett
Bakita and in studio, ladies and gentlemen. Doc Applegate, great
to have you here.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's great to be back. It feels like home. Now.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
We normally do this over the phone from my clinic,
my free clinic up north, because I work Fridays, but
it's nice not to work Fridays and come down and
visit you guys.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
So talk to us before we just you know, in
twenty twenty five, what are doctors telling patients about the
use of alcohol? What about this study and dementia and
heavy alcohol use.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well, this is what's interesting is that we always knew
that alcohol was bad for you. As we were talking earlier.
You know, you get the good news bad news. It's
an anti accident, so that might help you. It can
cause damage. It can increase your risk for cancer, heart disease, hypertension, stroke.
Even so, there are some complications to alcohol use, especially

(01:00):
heavy alcohol use. And that's the difference is how much
do you use and how often you do it. So
they did a study and this is a study that
was published in Neurology. It's a study that I think
was done in Brazil. I can't quite remember reviewing the study,
but basically, it showed that alcohol damages the blood vessels
to your brain. And we've talked a lot about how
important it is to get oxygen to your brain, to

(01:22):
get the blood to keep the blood vessels in your
brain very healthy. It turns out that if you use
a lot of alcohol here heavy alcohol user, that it
causes athlosclerosis, what we call highlend athlos glorrosis in your brain.
And it's not just the big blood vessels most importantly,
it's the little blood vessels that really feed the neurons
in your brain that appeared to be affected by that,

(01:42):
and that increases your risk for dementia because your brain shrinks,
and it's just not healthy for your brain to be
that way. So your brain shrinks, the neurons don't work
as well, you have cognitive failure. So it's been shown
that the heavier the alcohol use, the more likely this
is to happen. And it doesn't. But the problem is
once you get that scarring in the blood vessels, it

(02:04):
doesn't go away. So if you are a heavy alcohol
user in your youth, it will have effect for you
as you age.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Oh good.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
So when you talk youth, I mean are we talking
as young as like, you know, eighteen, when you're not
supposed to be drunking, right when you're eighteen, nineteen twenty,
the days when you were in college and you really overused,
that can actually start this process happening. Now, if you
get smart and you stop, you won't continue to progress.
But the problem is that your body doesn't heal this.

(02:34):
Once you get the scarring the blood vessels, once they narrow,
it stays that way. That's the that's the danger of this.
Because this is an interesting study because they dissected the
brain of people that had the alcohol use and they
could clearly see the damage compared to those who had
moderate use or light use. They could clearly see the
difference in the blood vessels in the brain.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
So what are doctors telling their patients about alcohol or
moderate use? Surrey, you say, and don't even do it anymore?

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, I the safest thing, Yes, the safest thing is
not to drink. That's much better for your brain, much
better for your heart, much better for your entire system.
Moderate alcohol use, especially with more natural substances such as wine,
have been shown to help a little bit with their
anti accident equalities, and some of the reserve a trial
that can be in wine. But it's basically you have

(03:22):
to control it. And it's the rule is, you know,
just use it occasionally, then you'll probably be okay. But
even this study questions, you know that whether that process starts,
even with the first drink.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Doc with percentage of alcohol, you know, the hard stuff
compared to beer or other things you mentioned wine already,
is that just up the game that much more?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
It ups the game.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
It appears to be directly related to the actual chemical
in of alcohol, the ethanol that's in alcohol that gives
you the buzz but also gives you some scarring and
the blood vessels.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
That's the problem. It's the ethanol that doesn't.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Just got to stick a little plug in here. If
you're one of those people that have tried to quit
and found that that was the hardest part of the
whole game, see me Steve Kelly Atwoodradio dot com. Feel
free to send an email. Doctor Jim Applegate, former Family
physician of the year in the entire state of Michigan
now runs a clinic up north where if anybody has
a chainsaw, he may need.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Exactly they finally got after the ice done.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
They did get my road into and out of our
complex open, but there's still wood everywhere.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
It's just it's apocalyptic up north, unbelievable. Thanks for coming in, man,
my pleasure.