Moderate consumption helps mental acuity, study says

Modern Brewery Age,  Jan 24, 2005  

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A recent study of more than 12,000 elderly women found that women who consume moderate quantities of alcohol each day are less likely than abstainers to suffer degraded mental capabilities as they age.

The women in the study who consumed light to moderate amounts of alcohol daily had about a 20 percent lower risk of experiencing problems with their mental abilities later in life.

"Low levels of alcohol appear to have cognitive benefits," said Francine Grodstein of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, senior author on the study, published in the most recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. "Women who consistently were drinking about one-half to one drink per day had both less cognitive impairment as well as less decline in their cognitive function compared to women who didn't drink at all."

Numerous studies have found that moderate consumption of alcohol can benefit the heart, and several small studies have indicated that it might also benefit the brain. But this is the largest study so far to examine the impact of moderate consumption on long-term mental acuity.

"We know it is beneficial to have a drink a day for your heart. This says there is an additional reason to follow that guideline--it can protect against cognitive decline," said Marilyn S. Albert of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Alzheimer's Association told the Washington Post. "So now we have two reasons to do it."

Researchers said that they suspect that alcohol helps the brain by improving blood flow. Alcohol may also reduce the risk of the small strokes that can damage mental ability as people age.

In the new study, researchers analyzed data on about 12,480 women ages 70 to 81 participating in the Nurses' Health Study. The women were questioned about their alcohol consumption during their forties and fifties, and questioned again in their seventies to assess their memory and reasoning abilities.

Those who consumed half a drink to one drink each day for at least four years were about 20 percent less likely to have an impairment in their thinking abilities and about 15 percent less likely to experience a decline in their mental powers over the two years they were studied, regardless of what type of alcohol they preferred, the researchers found. On average, women who drank moderately tended to have the memory and reasoning ability of someone about a year and a half younger than those who abstained. No benefit was seen among women who drank more than that.

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