Drinking one or two drinks a day may be good for your brain, study says

Do you love a glass of wine with dinner? There is good news for you from a study that found that “moderate” alcohol consumption, a glass or two per day, could actually preserve your memory and thinking skills.

This was true for both men and women, the researchers said.

However, there was one caveat: The study of nearly 20,000 Americans tracked for an average of nine years found that the brain benefit of alcohol applies primarily to white people, not black people. The reasons for that remain unclear, according to a team led by Changwei Li, an epidemiologist at the University of Georgia School of Public Health in Athens.

However, among whites, low to moderate alcohol consumption “was significantly associated with a consistently high trajectory of cognitive function and a lower rate of cognitive decline,” compared to people who never drank, the team reported on 29 June in JAMA Network Open.

The study was unable to prove that moderate alcohol consumption directly caused preservation of thought and memory, only that there was an association.

The range of alcohol consumption considered “low to moderate” in the study was set at less than eight drinks per week for women and less than 15 drinks per week for men. Drink more frequently and any benefit to the brain begins to fade and even become possible harm, the researchers emphasized.

Furthermore, although the tests administered to the study participants measured cognitive attributes such as memory (word memory), general mental state (tests of knowledge, language) and knowledge of vocabulary, they were no designed to assess whether alcohol could protect people from Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

Still, the finding that moderate alcohol consumption does not impair thinking skills, and may even provide a benefit, “could be good news for some of the alcohol users, who make up the majority of Americans according to the Survey. Center on Drug Use and Health, “said geriatric psychiatrist Dr. Jeremy Koppel. He is an associate professor at the Feinstein Institutes of Medical Research in Manhasset, New York.

But there are always downsides to drinking, including its effects on the heart, Koppel added.

“As the study authors point out, the benefits of potentially improved cognitive performance in middle-aged Americans who consume alcohol must be weighed against the risks of hypertension and stroke, among other diseases, that this exposure can confer,” said Koppel, who was not involved in the new study.

The research used full data from an ongoing federal government health study that involved nearly 20,000 people followed for an average of nine years between 1996 and 2008. Participants were 62 years old at the start of the study and 60% were women.

Li’s team noted that the “findings are in line with previous research.” Those previous studies include a major study of Californians who found that moderate alcohol consumption was linked to better cognitive function among people averaging about 73 years of age. And data from the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study found that drinking that didn’t exceed more than one drink per day seemed to be linked to a decrease in cognitive decline for women in their 70s.

However, none of this means that Americans can go out and raise multiple glasses of alcohol for good health, because the alcohol problem is a major cause of suffering in the United States. In that regard, “public health campaigns are still needed to further reduce alcohol consumption in middle-aged or older American adults, particularly among men,” Li’s group said.

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