You can have your alcohol and drink it too

Everyone has heard of the phrase: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Well according to a few recent studies, this phrase may be false for a certain delight. What is the God’s nectar on earth? Alcohol of course. Who doesn’t enjoy a nice cold beer during a Thursday night football game? How about a special glass of perfectly aged red wine during dinner with your significant other? Maybe you prefer a few shots with some friends once exams are over. Other than the ecstatic feeling you get from every gulp, imagine that it may be actually good for you in the long run? You might drink right know because you do not know if your liver will last into your 20s, 30s, 40s and on. Let me tell you though, moderation is key. It is becoming more common knowledge that a serving of red wine occasionally is actually beneficial to the cardiovascular and nervous system. But what if I told you that light-to-moderate drinking when you are in your 50s or 60s on can actually reduce your risk of age-dependent cognitive decline? It is always hard seeing a loved one suffer through dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, because not only does it affect that individual, it affects the person’s family and friends as well. I am not saying that let us all go and become alcoholics with the intention of preventing cognitive decline in the future. There is still no doubt that excessive alcohol abuse will definitely cause brain damage and neurological dysfunction. However, a few studies support the belief that mild alcohol consumption is surprisingly beneficial.

            Michael A. Collins and his research team at Loyola University Medical School have researched for several years of the effects of ethanol on rat brain cultures. According to his study, the ethanol “preconditioning” of rat brain cultures prevents neurodegeneration with the suppression of neurotoxic protein-evoked increases in calcium and pro-inflammatory mediators. He finds that the onset of neuroprotection correlates with elevations of effector heat shock proteins, and he found that rats that are preconditioned with ethanol have a higher level elevation of these proteins. It has been indicted in other studies that people who have never drank alcohol are more at risk to cognitive deterioration compared to those that are light or moderate alcohol consumers. From all this, Collins and his team speculate that moderate alcohol intake might actually counter cognitive deterioration during advanced aging by exerting preconditioning-like suppression effects of neuroinflammation. To go along with Collins’ findings, researchers from the University of Texas, University of Kentucky, and University of Maryland investigated the correlation between alcohol consumption in later ages to cognitive abilities. They used data from more than 650 participants that participated with surveys on their alcohol consumption and demographics, neuropsychological assessments, and MRIs. The researchers concluded similar results to that of which Collins speculated, finding that light alcohol consumption during late life is associated with higher episodic memory. More data needs to be collected and interpreted before this theory can be fully supported. But hey, next time you go out for drinks, don’t forget to invite your grandmother. She might remember the night better than you will.

 

References:

B. Downer, Y. Jiang, F. Zanjani, D. Fardo. Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Cognition and Regional Brain Volumes Among Older Adults. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, 2014; DOI: 10.1177/1533317514549411

Collins, M., Neafsey, E., Wang, K., Achille, N., Mitchell, R., & Sivaswamy, S. (2010). Moderate Ethanol Preconditioning of Rat Brain Cultures Engenders Neuroprotection Against Dementia-Inducing Neuroinflammatory Proteins: Possible Signaling Mechanisms. Molecular Neurobiology Mol Neurobiol, 420-425.