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Moderate caffeine or alcohol use not associated with possibility of seizure or epilepsy
Jump to full article: EurekAlert, 2009-11-18
Intro: A recent study determined there is a significant risk of seizure for individuals who currently smoke cigarettes. Boston-based researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School also found that long-term, moderate intake of caffeine or alcohol does not increase the chance of having a seizure or developing epilepsy. This is the first prospective study to examine the potential risks associated with cigarette smoking, caffeine intake, and alcohol consumption as they independently relate to epilepsy. Full findings of this study are currently available online and will appear in the February 2010 issue of Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.
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Barbara A. Dworetzky, M.D., and colleagues used data obtained from the Nurses' Health Study II, a group of 116,608 female registered nurses, aged 25-42 years old who returned mailed questionnaires on their lifestyle and medical history including epilepsy and seizure activity. In the analysis for cigarette smoking, researchers accrued 246 cases and 1,778,307 person-years of follow-up among 116,363 participants. For the analyses of caffeine intake, there were 201 cases and 1,440,850 person-years of follow-up among 105,941 participants, and for the alcohol consumption analyses, 198 cases and 1,427,348 person-years of follow-up among 104,934 participants. The data used in this study were obtained from 1989 through May 31, 2005.
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