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If you are 60 years old or older and drink more than the recommended guidelines for moderate alcohol consumption, you could run the risk of losing memory and other cognitive functions, especially if you are a female. A new study has found that cognitive function declines more rapidly for heavy drinkers even compared with light-to-moderate drinkers.
For women, heavy drinking is four drinks or more during a day or more than seven drinks a week. For men, five or more drinks during any one drinking session, or more than 14 drinks a week, is considered heavy.

There is not a lot of scientific research regarding alcohol use and cognition among the elderly. In fact, such studies are rare. A new study conducted in Brazil focused specifically on cognitive problems caused by heavy alcohol use among 1,145 people who were 60 years old or older.

Heavy Alcohol Use Among Elderly

The first surprising finding of the study was the high rate of heavy alcohol use among the group. They found that 8.2 percent of the 419 men and 726 women studied were heavy drinkers, or drinking at levels that are considered high risk.

“We found that heavy alcohol use among the elderly people we investigated was high at 8.2 percent and affected principally men from low socioeconomic levels,” said corresponding author of the study, Marcos Antonio Lopes in a news release.

But the real surprise of the study was the finding that heavy drinking affect the cognitive function of women more than men. The relationship between heavy drinking and cognitive function lost in men was not statistically significant.

Cognitive Loss Greater for Women

“However, the effects of heavy alcohol use on memory and other cognitive functions were more evident in women,” said Lopes. “Our findings suggest that alcohol use does not have a linear relationship with cognitive decline.”

In other words, women who continue to drink heavily into their senior years run the risks of losing cognitive function and are more prone therefore to falls and significant memory loss.

Source: Lopes, M.L., et al. “Prevalence of Alcohol-Related Problems in an Elderly Population and Their Association With Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.” Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 26 Jan 2010