Too much of anything is bad. For instance, excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths in the United States from 2006 to 2010, shortening life expectancy by an average of 30 years.
Additionally, one out of ten deaths among working adults aged 20-64 is caused by excessive alcohol drinking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But drinking alcohol should not be necessarily bad. It also has its benefits provided it is taken in moderation. Mayo Clinic said that moderate alcohol consumption could reduce the risk of dying and developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
There were also some studies pointing out its benefits for brain health, but many of these studies are not designed to isolate the effects of alcohol on the brain or did not measure its effects later in life.
Long-Term Cognitive Benefits of Alcohol Consumption
A new study examined the link between alcohol consumption and cognitive function over time among middle-aged and older adults in the United States.
Lead author Ruiyuan Zhang, a doctoral student at UGA's College of Public Health, said that the goal in their study is to know whether drinking a small amount of alcohol is correlated with a good cognitive function or it is just a kind of survivor bias.
Using participant data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study, the researchers developed a way to track cognition performance for over ten years.
They were able to gather 19,897 participants who completed the surveys every two years about their lifestyle and health, including questions on drinking habits.
Moreover, these participants also had their cognition measured in a series of tests that measures their overall mental status, word recall, and vocabulary. The researchers then combined the scores of the participants to form a total cognitive score.
Zhang and his colleagues assessed the performance of the participants on these cognitive tests throughout the study and categorized their performance, whether their cognitive function remained high over time or began to decline.
Their findings suggest that those who had a drink or two a day tend to perform better on cognitive tests over time compared to nondrinkers. They saw a pattern of light drinking associated with high cognitive trajectories even after controlling factors that could impact cognition, such as age, smoking, and education.
The researchers also note that the association was stronger among white participants compared to African American participants. Therefore, further exploration into the mechanisms of the effect of alcohol on cognition is advised.
Read also: Problematic Alcoholics Share 29 Distinct Genes That Explain Drinking Behaviors: Study
How Much Drink Is Light Drinking?
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture, one drink per day for women and two drinks for men per day is considered moderate drinking
That means that the optimal amount of drinks per week was between 10 and 14 drinks, Neuroscience News reports. But Zhang said that it does not mean those who drink less should also start drinking more.
"It is hard to say this effect is causal," says Zhang. "So, if some people don't drink alcoholic beverages, this study does not encourage them to drink to prevent cognitive function decline."
