Parkinson's disease and alcohol
3/18/2024, 5 mins reading
Does alcohol make Parkinson’s disease better, worse, or neither? The short answer is: It has yet to be confirmed. The overall effect of alcohol on Parkinson’s disease risk is still debatable and more studies are needed to make any conclusive assessments.
Alcohol and PD risk
The association between alcohol consumption and PD risk has been studied for decades, however, whether or not there is a correlation between them still remains to be proven.
A review conducted by a Chinese group has found that overall the consumption of alcohol is inversely correlated with the risk of Parkinson’s disease. The correlation appears with a U-shaped association, which indicates that the correlation exists only under a certain amount of alcohol consumption(26–35 g/day). Further decrease of Parkinson’s disease risk isn’t observed beyond that amount of alcohol consumption. This finding echoes the one from another study conducted by a group from France that a light to moderate consumption of alcohol will reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease, and heavy drinking will be harmful or even fatal. The review also found that the correlation between alcohol consumption and Parkinson’s disease varies among geographic areas with the European region bearing the highest, then America, and Asia. Nonetheless, another study conducted in a larger European population has found no association between baseline and lifetime alcohol consumption and Parkinson’s disease risk, neither in between types of alcoholic beverages.
A variety of causes can be attributed to inconclusiveness such as selection, recall bias, and residual confounding as discussed by Silvana S. Bettiola in the review, however, it is wise at this point to not make any recommendations soon.
Alcohol and PD symptoms
Both alcohol and Parkinson’s disease have an impact on the brain, therefore, it is reasonable to presume that drinking alcohol would be placing an extra burden on the brain and be worsening Parkinson’s disease symptoms. There are several ways that alcohol consumption can worsen Parkinson’s disease symptoms:
Alcohol can alter the dopamine level in the brain, therefore it aggravates motor symptoms like tremors and rigidity in PD patients
Alcohol consumption can also cause dehydration.
One of the critical issues after alcohol consumption is drowsiness or dizziness. Drowsiness and dizziness would affect PD patients’s balance and coordination, which often could lead PD patients to fall and cause fatal events.
Alcohol can also cause sleeping problems. For those PD patients with Sleeping disorders like rapid eye movement, drinking alcohol would exacerbate sleeping disorders.
Depression, anxiety, and other mental issues often occur in PD patients as non-motor symptoms. It is well known that drinking will cause mental issues and would worsen non-motor symptoms in PD patients.
In summary
Although it remains to be proven that there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and Parkinson’s disease risk, alcohol consumption can affect Parkinson’s disease symptoms, therefore offset the effect of treatment.