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Drinking May Help Thinking, Study Says

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 May 2007, 00:00 CDT

Could it be true? Do wine drinkers (and others who consume alcohol in moderation) think more clearly than teetotalers?

Well, a qualified, cautious -- yes.

That's a conclusion of a Columbia University study that found that those who consume alcohol have greater cognitive ability -- as a group, we appear to suffer less "cognitive decline" over time -- than those who never drank, according to research findings published in the journal Neuroepidemiology.

In the study, titled "Reported Alcohol Consumption and Cognitive Decline: The Northern Manhattan Study," researchers interviewed people by phone, putting them through a battery of tests, such as asking them to immediately recall a list of 10 words that had just been read to them, and doing the same thing after a short delay, along with other brain-testing exercises. The results showed that drinkers showed less decline over time than those who never drank.

This one sounded so farfetched when I first read it in an online Wine Spectator story that I sent an e-mail to the lead researcher in the study -- Dr. Clinton Wright, assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Division of Stroke and Critical Care -- to make sure I wasn't, um, confused.

Wright confirmed the conclusions but also cautioned that, "no one populationbased study provides proof. Alcohol abuse is a major public health issue and heavy intake is associated with all sorts of physical ailments, ranging from social to psychiatric to liver problems.

Therefore, I was careful to point out that the benefit seen in the highest drinking category should be discounted since the sample size is small. "The other point is that we presume people were not drinking at the time of the telephone cognitive test and our results do not imply that alcohol improves cognitive function directly (e.g., if you do a shot of tequila, you think better). Rather, we hypothesize that alcohol may work against other disease processes over time. Other studies would be needed to examine such relationships."

That's a very balanced, measured response from a researcher who obviously doesn't want his research to be used to justify or rationalize destructive behavior.

But if you drink in moderation, be assured that your glass of wine will not cloud your thinking, long-term.

Now if we could just say the same thing about our judgment ...

Source: Dayton Daily News

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