But British and US scientists have discovered that drinking any level of alcohol could raise the risk of developing dementia. 'Even light or moderate drinking may increase the risk of dementia, indicating that reducing alcohol consumption across the population could play a significant role in dementia prevention.' Three measures related to alcohol consumption were used to explore the impact on dementia risk. They found those with double the genetic risk of alcohol dependency, had a 16 per cent increase in dementia risk. Instead, dementia risk steadily increased with more genetically predicted drinking.