Hmmmm…….Drinking Alcohol Reduces Future Dementia Risk?

I still remember the first time I heard the news that a glass or two (yes, a definite two glass limit) of red wine daily might just be as helpful for greater longevity as that dose of daily vitamins. Those results actually led some of my dearest older relatives, prone to consumption of harder liquors in a younger day, to make red wine their drink of choice from that point forward.

Today, we just became aware that the consumption of one or two alcoholic beverages (not limited to just red wine) a day may reduce an elderly person’s risk of developing dementia by 37 percent!

But before you begin thinking its time to up your consumption habits, that new study, presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Vienna, also clearly indicates moderation is the critical adjective to apply.

Study Results

On the positive side, the results revealed that the elderly, defined by those who were aged 75 years and older, were able to reap similar benefits from alcohol as those much younger. As has been noted in other studies, alcohol has a demonstrated range of benefits including boosting good cholesterol, preventing blood platelets from clotting and prompting the production of chemicals that help memory.

The study verifies that moderate consumers of alcohol may receive some benefit and therefore do not need to concern themselves with cutting back as they reach the latter part of the golden years. Simply stated, having a drink or two a day is essentially OK.

But before you encourage Gramps to pour himself a stiff cocktail it is important to recognize two other key findings of the study. First, those already showing signs of memory loss, defined as having mild cognitive impairments, were found to accelerate that memory loss if they consumed alcohol regularly. And not too surprisingly, the more they consumed, the worse the memory symptoms were.

Second, once a person slides beyond moderation, the results really change. Those deemed heavy drinkers (consumers of more than 14 drinks per week) were nearly twice as likely to develop dementia, researchers said.

Ultimately, the positive designation of one or two drinks per day actually translates to one being the limit for women and two the upper threshold for males.

Simple Message

The message appears simple regarding alcohol. Rather than alcohol being one of our worst drugs as some would insist, used in moderation it might just be beneficial to people, helping us live longer, healthier lives.

But the key, my friends, is moderation.