Alcoholic dementia is a silent epidemic, it’s cause is excessive drinking. This type of dementia goes undiagnosed and confused with other types of dementia. Alcoholic dementia is a lack of vitamin B1 and is detrimental to one’s health, especially in the aging population. Alcohol induced dementia is treatable and possibly reversible; even so, it is avoidable if drinking in moderation. Dementia is a loss of mental ability severe enough to interfere with everyday life (Alzheimer’s Association. N. D. ). Dementia makes it difficult to learn new things also personality changes can take place.
Many types of dementia have similar effects, but they have different causes among them alcoholic dementia. Excessive drinking causes Alcohol induced dementia, it is under diagnosed and confused with Alzheimer’s disease, other forms of dementia or getting older. Research is still out on how much is too much, some people seem affected by much less alcohol than others. Some people think that merely one episode of binge drinking can cause troubles later in life (Lutz. 2013).
Imaging studies have shown how excessive alcohol intake affects the brain by changing the structure. As we get older, we all lose a little gray-matter volume and white-matter integrity in the brain, but in alcoholics, those areas break down more quickly. It looks like accelerated aging”, says Edith Sullivan, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University, who has studied alcohol’s effects (Beck. 2015). Right now it is unknown if permanent damage will occur in brains that are still developing.
The Baby Boomer generation will have an advanced risk of developing cognitive problems. Sad to say, we think their increased exposure in the 1960s has put them at substantially higher risk of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity than the generation before them,” says Gary Kennedy, chief of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center (Beck. 2015). Alcoholic dementia has characters that can occur together or consecutively Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s psychosis. Wernicke’s causes damage to different parts of the brain, including the thalamus, hypothalamus and the central nervous system.
Korsakoff’s occurs when the parts of the brain that affect memory become fully damaged, it also impairs memory and cognitive skills. Symptoms of Wernicke’s include disorientation, loss of muscle coordination, abnormal eye movements, double vision, and eyelid drooping. The symptoms of Korsakoff’s is the inability to form new memories, loss of memory, making up stories, and hallucinations (Buddy. 2016). Two studies presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in 2012 showed drinking and binge drinking caused increased risk for cognitive decline and memory loss (Lloyd. 012).
Alcohol is not the direct cause of this dementia, it is the diet of the alcoholic. Alcoholic beverages have no nutritional value and alcoholics have unhealthy diets, this contributes to damage of interior organs and not absorbing the needed nutrition (Causey. 2016). Halting Alcoholic dementia is possible, unlike other types of dementia. However, if extensive damage to the brain has occurred, hope for recovery is slim but, Thiamine (vitamin B1) can treat less severe damage. Nevertheless, memory loss caused by the deficiency is likely permanent.
However, the best thing for the alcoholics to do is to stop drinking and seek treatment. Only a five-minute conversation with a doctor about the perils of drinking could reduce problem drinking by 25%. “One of the biggest problems with alcoholism is denial,” says Dr. Sullivan. “Getting over that is the first step to recovery” (Beck. 2015). The CDC recommends moderation if you do drink. It describes moderate drinking as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. Binge drinking is a problem in the United States and Montana.
Binge drinking is having four or more drinks (women) or five or more drinks (men) during one occasion in the last month, while chronic drinking is having eight or more drinks for women or 15 or more drinks a week for men according to the CDC. Last year 17. 7% of adults in the United States and 21. 8% in Montana admit excessive drinking. Excessive drinking is most common in 18-44 year old’s (CDC. 2016). According to Michael Cummins (2014), the executive director of the Flathead Chemical Dependency Clinic; it is Montana’s isolation, lack of resources, and “work hard, play hard” mentality that makes many people drink heavily.
One binge can cause alcoholic dementia and it can affect anyone, however, the 50+ age group is more susceptible. With treatment, some of the effects of Alcoholic dementia disappear, however, alcoholic dementia is avoidable if drinking in moderation. Twenty percent of Montanan’s admit to binge drinking this dramatically increases their risk of alcoholic dementia. Alcoholic dementia has characters that can occur together or consecutively Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s psychosis.
Wernicke’s causes damage to different parts of the brain, including the thalamus, hypothalamus and the central nervous system. Korsakoff’s occurs when the parts of the brain that affect memory become completely damaged, it also impairs memory and cognitive skills. Symptoms of Wernicke’s include disorientation, loss of muscle coordination, abnormal eye movements, double vision, and eyelid drooping. The symptoms of Korsakoff’s is the inability to form new memories, loss of memory, making up stories, and hallucinations (Buddy. 2016).
Two studies presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in 2012 showed drinking and binge drinking caused increased risk for cognitive decline and memory loss (Lloyd. 2012). Alcohol is not the direct cause of this dementia, it is the diet of the alcoholic. Alcoholic beverages have no nutritional value and alcoholics have unhealthy diets, this contributes to damage of interior organs and not absorbing the needed nutrition (Causey. 2016). Halting Alcoholic dementia is possible, unlike other types of dementia.
However, if extensive damage to the brain has occurred, hope for recovery is slim but, Thiamine (vitamin B1) can treat less severe damage. Nevertheless, memory loss caused by the deficiency is likely permanent. However the best thing for the alcoholics to do is to stop drinking and seek treatment. Only a five-minute conversation with a doctor about the perils of drinking could reduce problem drinking by 25%. “One of the biggest problems with alcoholism is denial,” says Dr. Sullivan. “Getting over that is the first step to recovery” (Beck. 2015). The CDC recommends moderation if you do drink.
It describes moderate drinking as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. Binge drinking is a problem in the United States and Montana. Binge drinking is having four or more drinks (women) or five or more drinks (men) during one occasion in the last month, while chronic drinking is having eight or more drinks for women or 15 or more drinks a week for men according to the CDC. Last year 17. 7% of adults in the United States and 21. 8% in Montana admit excessive drinking. Excessive drinking is most common in 18-44 year old’s (CDC. 2016).
According to Michael Cummins (2014), the executive director of the Flathead Chemical Dependency Clinic; it is Montana’s isolation, lack of resources, and “work hard, play hard” mentality that makes many people drink heavily. Alcoholic dementia could be caused from as little as one binge and can affect anyone, however, the 50+ age group is more susceptible. With treatment, some of the effects of Alcoholic dementia disappear, however, alcoholic dementia is avoidable if drinking in moderation. More than 20% of Montanan’s admit to binge drinking this dramatically increases their risk of alcoholic dementia.
