A new study found that low to moderate drinking may improve cognitive function for middle-aged or older adults.
“There is now a lot of observational evidence showing that light to moderate alcohol drinking is associated with better cognitive function and a lower risk of dementia compared with alcohol abstaining,” said senior principal research scientist Karin Anstey, a director of the NHMRC Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration in Australia.
When compared with those who said they never drank, low to moderate drinking was associated with significantly higher cognition scores for mental status, word recall and vocabulary over time, as well as with lower rates of decline in each of those areas.
However, a major global study released last year found that no amount of liquor, wine or beer is safe for our overall health. It found that alcohol was the leading risk factor for disease and premature death in men and women between the ages of 15 and 49 worldwide in 2016, accounting for nearly one in 10 deaths.
“What we know for sure is that drinking too much alcohol definitely harms the brain in a major way. What is less clear is whether or not low to moderate intake may be protective in certain people, or if total abstinence is the most sound advice,” said neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson, founder of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“Further, it’s not just about ‘what and how much’ alcohol, it’s also important to consider ‘when and how’ the alcohol is consumed, Isaacson said.
For example, having a glass of wine with an early dinner is “more sensible than two glasses late at night on an empty stomach close to bedtime,” he said.
“Alcohol before bed has the tendency to lead to poorer overall quality sleep, which also impacts dementia risk,” he added.
“Alcohol consumption,
for example, increases the risk of some cancers. If one doesn’t drink, then we
would not recommend taking up alcohol drinking.”
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