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Comment on Alcohol and social bonding in humans (2018)

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Is getting the "connectedness index" up from 5.9 to 6.6 significant?

The "article in the British Medical Journal" is here.[1] The "Whitehall study" has been tracking a group of British civil servants since the 1980s. The alcohol effect seems to be slightly above the noise level. But the level of alcohol consumption at which things start to get worse is quite low. "Alcohol consumption >14 units/week was associated with an increased risk of dementia in a linear fashion". 14 units a week is about one glass of wine a day.[2]

Also, in this study alcohol consumption is self-reported, so it's probably low.

[1] https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k2927

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_of_alcohol

The group with the highest rate of dementia was those who abstained from alcohol completely though.

Did they control for the recovering alcoholic abstainers?

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