If you’re a regular reader of my column, you know I’ve written fairly extensively on Alzheimer’s and what can be done now to prevent it from forming later. Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease, and, fittingly, it seems like all the news that comes out about it is bad news. But there’s some good news to report on Alzheimer’s.

For instance, according to Sue Halpern, a scholar in resident at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont and author of I Can’t Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research, doctors are now able to see the formation of Alzheimer’s in a living brain, 10 years before the person is actually diagnosed (before this, Alzheimer’s could only be seen in a brain after the person had died). While this may not seem like a promising finding – after all, there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s at present – as Halpern says, the drugs being worked on to combat Alzheimer’s are only effective if they are taken several years before Alzheimer’s is diagnosed.

But there’s something that you can do now that can help prevent Alzheimer’s from ever forming in the first place: stop drinking alcohol and stop smoking.

Now, we’ve known for many years now that smoking and drinking excessively do severe harms to our lungs and liver, respectively, and are great ways to hasten death. But according to new research presented at a meeting in Chicago among members of the American Academy of Neurology, drinking and smoking also hastens Alzheimer’s diagnoses.

Researchers examined approximately 940 people over the age of 60, all of whom had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers then contacted the families of the study’s participants and asked them if they (i.e. their family member participating) had a history of smoking or drinking and if so, to provide as much information as possible about just how much they smoked or drank.

When they looked at the data, they found that those participants who drank heavily (more than two glasses a day), and smoked a pack a day developed Alzheimer’s much earlier than those who didn’t drink or didn’t smoke. To be precise, heavy drinkers developed the disease an average of five years earlier than those who didn’t drink or drank very little, and those who smoked developed the disease approximately two and a half years earlier than the non-smoking participants.

Their study also assessed whether or not the participants carried a gene that’s been identified as one linked with Alzheimer’s diagnoses – APOE4. Those who had this gene developed Alzheimer’s three years earlier than those who didn’t have it and an average of nine years earlier if they also smoked or drank.

APOE4 – apolipoprotein – is a subclass of lipoprotein that transports lipids through the blood vessels to the liver. From the liver the apolipoprotein are transported to other parts of the body’s tissues where they’re stored, secreted or metabolized, depending on where they go after reaching the liver. There are six major classes of apolipoprotein , one of them being E. It is this E apolipoprotein  – APOE4, to be exact – that’s been linked to atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s diagnoses. But again, not everyone has this gene, nor does every person with Alzheimer’s have it.

Does smoking and drinking guarantee an Alzheimer’s diagnoses? Certainly not. But this finding further substantiates the dangers of smoking and heavy drinking and what you’re risking by ever starting. Smokers are a pariah in today’s society, banned from smoking in their own cars in some states. Instead of being forced to quit smoking, why not make your own decision and quit the booze or smoking habit yourself – for the sake of your brain, if for nothing else.