I knew it! Wine cuts dementia risk

Women who drink wine areless likely to develop dementia over time than their teetotaling peers,while drinking hard liquor may actually boost dementia risk, Swedishresearchers report.  “There may be components in winebesides (alcohol) that protect against dementia,” Dr. Lauren Lissner ofGoteborg University, the study’s senior author, told Reuters Health viae-mail. “Our findings are consistent with several previous reports.”  Lissner and her team looked at 1,462women who ranged in age from 38 to 60 between 1968 and 1969 and werefollowed up to 2002, by which time 164 had been diagnosed withdementia. The women reported their alcohol consumption at the beginningof the study and three more times during the course of the study.  The risk of developing dementia was40 percent lower among wine drinkers, the researchers found, whilewomen who drank wine and no other alcohol had a 70 percent lower risk.Smokers were even more strongly protected against dementia if theydrank wine only. But women who drank spirits were at 50 percent greaterrisk of dementia. 

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http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2008/04/03/eline/links/20080403elin005.html