One study has claimed that a daily glass of wine or two glasses of beer could help middle-aged and older people prevent dementia and maintain brain power.
The scientists noted that 8 alcoholic drinks a week for women and 15 for men can reduce the rate of cognitive declineleading to better overall mental health, memory of words and vocabulary.
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and even those who drink a smaller amount of alcohol each week might benefitwas what their results concluded.
The study that showed drinking once a day could help stave off the effects of dementia, was based on the results obtained from a survey in the USA. where scientists analyzed data from 19,887 people about your health and economic status from the US Health and Retirement Study.
Each of the study subjects underwent tests every two years between 1997 and 2008 to show changes in his health by measuring four factors: total cognition, mental status, word memory, and vocabulary.
When I know compared the scores of the 6,010 heavy drinkers low to moderate with those of those who they never drankthe scientists found that the first group was «significantly less likely» to experience declines in all four factors they looked at than the second group.
Based on their results, they suggested drinking 12 alcoholic drinks per week to slow decline in cognitive function, 13 for mental status, 10 for word recall, and 14 for vocabulary.
The results also made a U-shaped graph, suggesting that those who drink significantly more or less likely don’t reap the supposed benefits of alcohol.
The study, which included 16,950 white participants, also suggested that the protective capacity of alcohol differed according to ancestry.
Dr. Li added: “The role of alcohol consumption in cognitive function it may be a balance of its beneficial and detrimental effects on the cardiovascular system.
«Among light to moderate drinkers, the beneficial effects may outweigh the harmful effects on the cardiovascular system.»
The findings were published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The article is titled «Association Between Low-to-Moderate Alcohol Consumption and Middle-Aged to Older Cognitive Functions Among US Adults.»
GRAPHIC IMAGE
Alcohol Consumption Chart/Jama Open Network
this graph shows the association between lower scores and alcohol consumption. Error bars indicate 95% confidence limits.
The magnitude of the associations between the four factors was stronger among Caucasian participants than African descentthe scientists said.
The study also included 11,943 womenapproximately 60 percent of the total sample, although no clear differences identified between genders. The participants had a mean age of 61 years.
«The mechanisms underlying the beneficial association of low-to-moderate alcohol consumption with cognitive function are unclear,» said lead author Dr. Li Changwei, from the University of Georgia, USA.
‘Several studies have found that low to moderate alcohol consumption is associated with better cardiovascular functionsfewer cardiac events and a longer survival compared with abstainers and heavy drinkers.
‘However, a recent study found that drinking alcohol increases the risk of hypertension and stroke regardless of dose, which decreases the likelihood of this potential mechanism, the BBC reports
«The role of alcohol consumption in cognitive function may be a balance of its beneficial and detrimental effects on the cardiovascular system.»
Other studies have suggested that alcohol consumption it can fuel the expression of proteins that protect and stimulate brain development.
Published last year in The Lancet, a study of 500,000 people in China found that alcohol consumption ‘uniformly increases’ blood pressure and stroke risk, with little net effect on heart attack risk.