On average, heavy drinkers developed Alzheimer's almost five years earlier, while heavy smokers developed it, on average, a little more than two years sooner than nonsmokers. Patients who drank, smoked, and had a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's, on average, developed the disease roughly eight and a half years earlier than people who had none of these risk factors.
From the American Academy of Neurology Meeting, 4/16 8A; Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, Fla.