Alcohol may help preserve brain health
Now here’s a study I’d like to know more about….
Elderly men and women with a history of mild-to-moderate drinking may experience less mental decline over time than seniors who do not consume alcoholic drinks, study findings suggest. The findings imply that mild-to-moderate alcohol consumption may play a role in helping preserve cognitive function.”Health professionals have generally paid more attention to alcohol abuse and dependence and their adverse consequences,” study author Dr. Mary Ganguli, of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told Reuters Health.”Our study suggests that we should also consider the potential benefits of more modest patterns of alcohol use.”Some prior studies have pointed to the potential benefits of mild-to-moderate alcohol drinking.
One recent study, reported earlier this year by Reuters Health, showed that women over 70 years old who reported having about one alcoholic drink per day were less likely than teetotalers to show signs of mental decline two years later. Other studies have also pointed to the heart-healthy effects of alcohol drinking, particularly red wine.The current findings are based on data collected from more a thousand Southwestern Pennsylvania residents, aged 65 years and older, over an average seven-year period.The seniors, none of whom showed signs of dementia at the start of the study, were divided into three groups: one that reported no drinking, a second group that reported minimal drinking — once a month or less — and a third group that reported moderate drinking — more than once a month. More than half of the group reported current drinking, but very few were identified as heavy drinkers, the researchers note.
The study participants’ mental function was assessed at the start of the study, with periodic assessments occurring every two years.Overall, seniors classified as minimal drinkers, and those classified as moderate drinkers, exhibited less decline in their scores on tests that measured general mental status, executive functions and psychomotor speed, respectively, than did seniors who reported no drinking. Those who reported minimal drinking also showed less decline in their scores on tests of learning, including learning a word list, and naming, than did non-drinkers.
Read the abstract:
Objective: To examine the association between alcohol use and cognitive decline in a longitudinal study of a representative elderly community sample free of dementia at baseline.
Methods: Cognitive functions and self-reported drinking habits were assessed at 2-year intervals over an average of 7 years of follow-up. Cognitive measures, grouped into composites, were examined in association with alcohol consumption. Trajectory analyses identified latent homogeneous groups with respect to alcohol use frequency over time, and their association with average decline over the same period in each cognitive domain. Models controlled for age, sex, education, depression, smoking, general mental status (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]), performance on the given test at baseline, and subsequent new-onset dementia during follow-up.
Results: The authors found three homogeneous trajectories that they characterized as no drinking, minimal drinking, and moderate drinking. Few heavy drinkers were identified in this elderly cohort. Compared to no drinking, both minimal and moderate drinking were associated with lesser decline on the MMSE and Trailmaking tests. Minimal drinking was also associated with lesser decline on tests of learning and naming. These associations were more pronounced when comparing current drinkers to former drinkers (quitters) than to lifelong abstainers.
Conclusion: In a representative elderly cohort over an average of 7 years, a pattern of mild-to-moderate drinking, compared to not drinking, was associated with lesser average decline in cognitive domains over the same period.
Now, I’m off for a two martini lunch….