Teetotallers beware. A new study published in the August issue of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment says that a daily cocktail or glass of wine may help delay dementia.
A meta-analysis of 143 studies on the effects of alcohol on the brain
showed that moderate drinking (no more than 2 drinks a day
for a man and 1 drink a day for a woman), reduced the risk
for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia by 23%.
"It doesn't seem to matter if it's beer, wine, or spirits, as long as
the drinking was moderate," said Edward J. Neafsey, PhD, from the Department
of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Loyola University Medical
Center, Maywood, Illinois.
Dr. Neafsey and coauthor Michael A. Collins, PhD, became interested
in whether alcohol might be protective of human brains after experiments showed that rat brains exposed to low doses of alcohol
for a few days became resilient when subsequently treated with a
toxin.
"If the rat brain slices were treated for 5 or 6 days with low
alcohol and then the toxin was administered, there was hardly any
damage, whereas if they didn't get the pretreatment with alcohol, there
was significant damage,"
Dr. Neafsey explained.
One theory that Dr. Neafsey and Dr. Collins are working on now holds
that alcohol acts as a mild stressor for brain cells and "preconditions"
them, making them better able to ward off stress.
"Alcohol does not kill the brain cells, but it's a slight stress. When the cells are exposed they increase levels of various protective compounds, so...they are prepared when something more stressful that might kill or damage them comes along. The theory is called 'preconditioning,' where a mild stress given a few days before a severe stress causes a significant protection," Dr. Neafsey explained.
"Alcohol does not kill the brain cells, but it's a slight stress. When the cells are exposed they increase levels of various protective compounds, so...they are prepared when something more stressful that might kill or damage them comes along. The theory is called 'preconditioning,' where a mild stress given a few days before a severe stress causes a significant protection," Dr. Neafsey explained.
Heavy Drinking a Different Story
Light to moderate drinking conferred a similar benefit, but heavy
drinking (more than 3 to 5 drinks/day) was associated with a
higher risk for dementia and cognitive impairment.
In fact, adults who go on occasional
binges face a higher risk. A Finnish study showed that adults who binged
in midlife at least once a month
–
drinking, for example, more than
five bottles of beer or a bottle of wine at one sitting
–
were three
times more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer's, 25 years
later.
Most of the studies did not distinguish between the different types
of alcohol, but in a few studies, wine appeared to be more beneficial
than beer or spirits. "It really seemed to be that alcohol per se was
protective, not the type, because the few studies that did make the
distinction reported no difference among the effects of the different
types of alcohol," Dr. Neafsey said.
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