Alcohol Helps Prevent Alzheimer’s, Study Says

Moderate daily consumption of alcohol, which has already been shown to help prevent heart disease and strokes, can also ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, according to Dutch researchers. Whether the alcohol comes in the form of beer, wine or liquor does not appear to matter, according to a team from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, as long as the consumption is moderate--between one and three drinks per day.

The researchers conducted a six-year study of 5,395 people age 55 and over. The team reported in the Jan. 26 Lancet that people who consumed one to three drinks per day had a 42% lower risk of dementia than did nondrinkers. Those who weren’t daily drinkers but had more than one drink per week had a 25% lower risk.

The researchers speculate that drinking may stimulate the release of acetylcholine, a brain chemical that seems to stimulate memory, or may have an impact on blood flow that helps stave off dementia.

*

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II.