United States – New research shows that consuming alcohol regularly or occasionally raises a senior citizen’s possibility of suffering from a brain bleed after falling.
The study discovered that senior citizens who drank moderately had a higher possibility of developing a brain bleed as compared to those who did not drink at all, as reported by HealthDay.
Increased Risk
Moderate drinking—occurring occasionally or weekly—doubled the risk of a brain bleed for a person who had a fall; daily drinkers had their risk elevated two-fold. Results demonstrate that There are five times the likelihood that falling would bring about a bleed.
“One of the unexpected findings in our study was the strong dose-response relationship between reported alcohol use and intracranial hemorrhage,” notes the study’s senior author, Dr. Richard Shih, a professor of emergency medicine at Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine.
A Leading Cause of Injury in Seniors
Across the country, falls constitute the most prevalent cause of both deadly and non-fatal injuries among seniors, according to researchers in the background notes section. According to CDC data, in 2021, falls were the cause of death of 36,500 older people in the United States.
In the study, cross-sectional data was collected for 3,100 seniors aged 65 years and older, treated in two Palm Beach County trauma centers for a head injury resulting from a fall.
The survey further revealed that, out of the respondents, 18% indicated that they consume alcohol, which included 6% who take alcohol daily.
Researchers also learned that almost 14 percent of all Palm Beach fall victims suffered from at least one bout of a brain bleed or intracranial hemorrhage.
Brain Bleeds and Alcohol Consumption
Study revealed that brain bleeds were observed in 20 percent of the people who consume alcohol rarely, 22 percent who consume weekly and 25 percent daily alcohol consumers than 12 percent of non-drinkers.
“Drinking alcohol makes you more likely to fall because it affects your balance, concentration, and awareness,” Shih said in a university news release.
“It’s also worth noting that as individuals age, the effects of alcohol are increased,” Shih added. “This is because older adults often have a higher percentage of body fat to body water ratio, thus increasing the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream. Furthermore, alcohol metabolism decreases with age, exacerbating this effect, because older adults don’t process alcohol as efficiently as they used to.”
From such a study, the authors established that alcohol entails the consideration as a significant risk factor for falls.
The new study was recently published in the Journal of the American College of American Physicians Open.
Today’s fall prevention recommendations distributed by the U. S. CDC and the American Geriatrics Society do not include the results regarding drinking, Shih pointed out, as reported by HealthDay.
“Our findings suggest that alcohol use assessment and mitigation strategies may be useful additions to fall prevention strategies,” Shih said.