Booze And Your Brain – Moderate Alcohol Consumption By Seniors May Boost Episodic Memory

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Although alcohol consumption is typically associated with negative effects on the brain, a new study from a team of American researchers has found that people over 60 who are moderate drinkers have better episodic memory, meaning they are better at recalling specific events.

Published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, the new study also found moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a larger volume of the hippocampus, a brain region vital for episodic memory.

Study author Faika Zanjani, a behavioral and community health professor at the University of Maryland, noted that the study findings were significant considering the fact that episodic memory is typically lost with dementia.

“Over time, you don’t necessarily lose memory for [how to do] things, like driving or having coffee,” Zanjani told Laura Tedesco of Yahoo Health. “You usually lose memory of events — memories that you have to retrieve, instead of just use. It’s not just forgetting your keys. It’s forgetting key moments in your life.”

The study was based on data for over 660 patients in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. Participants in the study provided information on their alcohol intake, underwent a battery of neuropsychological tests, had MRIs taken of their brains and were tested for the genetic Alzheimer’s disease risk factor APOE e4.

The scientists learned that light and moderate alcohol usage in the over 60 set is connected with greater episodic memory and a larger hippocampal brain size. Quantity of alcohol usage did not influence executive function or overall mental ability.

Results from animal analyses indicate that moderate alcohol intake may help with preserving hippocampal volume by supporting the generation of nerve cells in the hippocampus. Additionally, subjecting the brain to moderate amounts of alcohol may boost the discharge of brain chemicals involved with mental processing, the researchers said.

“There were no significant differences in cognitive functioning and regional brain volumes during late life according to reported midlife alcohol consumption status,” said study author Brian Downer, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “This may be due to the fact that adults who are able to continue consuming alcohol into old age are healthier, and therefore have higher cognition and larger regional brain volumes, than people who had to decrease their alcohol consumption due to unfavorable health outcomes.”

Even though the advantages of light to moderate alcohol intake with respect to cognitive learning and memory down the road have been reported before – long periods of abusing alcohol, typically considered having five or more alcoholic beverages during a single session, is proven to be damaging to the brain, the study team pointed out.

“We constantly recommend that people not consume more than one drink a day,” Zanjani told Tedesco. “So when we actually find benefits for the moderate level, we’re pretty surprised.”

“As long as you don’t get intoxicated and stop doing the things you need to do, drinking alcohol seems to be okay,” she added.

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