Alcohol, Coffee, and Milk Intake in Relation to Epilepsy Risk

Alcohol, coffee and milk intakes have been explored in relation to epilepsy risk in observational studies; however, the results were not consistent. We performed a Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to evaluate the causality of these relationships. Genetic variants associated with alcohol, coffee and milk intake were adopted as instrumental variables. We obtained the summary data of epilepsy from the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Consortium (15,212 cases and 29,677 controls) and FinnGen consortium (4588 cases and 144,780 controls). Genetically predicted alcohol intake was associated with a higher risk of epilepsy in the ILAE Consortium (odds ratio (OR): 1.22, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.02–1.45). The association in the FinnGen consortium remained consistent in direction. Combined analysis of ILAE and FinnGen databases further indicated that genetically predicted alcohol intake was associated with a higher risk of epilepsy (OR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.06–1.47, p = 0.009). Genetically predicted coffee intake was not related to epilepsy risk, while higher genetically predicted milk intake was related to a lower risk of epilepsy (OR = 0.957; 95% CI, 0.917–0.999, p = 0.044). Our results suggest a detrimental effect of alcohol intake on the risk of epilepsy, while milk intake might be associated with a decreased risk of epilepsy.