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A Drink A
Day may delay dementia
Newswise — In people with mild cognitive
impairment, up to one drink of alcohol a day may
slow their progression to dementia, according to
a study published in the May 22, 2007, issue of
Neurology®, the scientific journal of the
American Academy of Neurology. Mild cognitive
impairment is a transitional stage between
normal aging and dementia that is used to
classify people with mild memory or cognitive
problems and no significant disability.
Researchers evaluated alcohol consumption and
the incidence of mild cognitive impairment in
1,445 people. They then followed 121 people with
mild cognitive impairment and their progression
to dementia. The participants, age 65 to 84,
were part of the Italian Longitudinal Study on
Aging and were followed for three-and-a-half
years.
The study found people with mild cognitive
impairment who had up to one drink of
alcohol a day, mostly wine, developed
dementia at an 85 percent slower rate than
people with mild cognitive impairment who
never drank alcohol.
"While many studies have assessed alcohol
consumption and cognitive function in the
elderly, this is the first study to look at how
alcohol consumption affects the rate of
progression of mild cognitive impairment to
dementia," said study authors Vincenzo Solfrizzi,
MD, PhD, and Francesco Panza, MD, PhD, with the
Department of Geriatrics at the University of
Bari, in Bari, Italy. "The mechanism responsible
for why low alcohol consumption appears to
protect against the progression to dementia
isn't known. However, it is possible that the
arrangement of blood vessels in the brain may
play a role in why alcohol consumption appears
to protect against dementia. This would support
other observations that drinking moderate
amounts of alcohol may protect the brain from
stroke and vascular dementia."
The study did not find any association between
higher levels of drinking, more than one drink
per day, and the rate of progression to dementia
in people with mild cognitive impairment
compared to non-drinkers.
The study was supported by the Italian
Longitudinal Study on Aging and by AFORIGE, an
Italian association for aging research.
The American Academy of Neurology, an
association of more than 20,000 neurologists and
neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to
improving patient care through education and
research. A neurologist is a doctor with
specialized training in diagnosing, treating and
managing disorders of the brain and nervous
system such as epilepsy, dystonia, migraine,
Huntington’s disease, and dementia.
