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Study: Alcohol in Moderation May Help Brain

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Enjoying some wine with a meal may help protect the brain against the mental decline associated with aging, a new study from Italy suggests. However, too much alcohol can have the opposite effect.

"This study shows that among older persons, moderate alcohol intake protects from the development of cognitive impairment," said lead author Dr. Giuseppe Zuccala of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.

"However," he cautioned in a statement, "alcohol abuse...is associated with an increased risk of cognitive dysfunction."

Elderly Italians commonly drink wine, especially with meals, whereas they seldom drink other alcoholic beverages, Zuccala's team notes in the December issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

In the study, the researchers evaluated the mental abilities and alcohol use of 15,807 Italian men and women 65 years of age or older. They found that among the more than 8,700 regular drinkers, 19% showed signs of mental impairment-compared with 29% of the roughly 7,000 non-drinkers.

When the researchers considered other factors in mental decline such as age, education and other health conditions, moderate alcohol use was still associated with a lower risk of impairment.

However, while this risk was lower among those who drank moderately compared with teetotalers, heavier alcohol use was linked to a higher risk of decline.

The ways in which moderate drinking might protect the brain are unclear. The researchers suggest that it may be related to alcohol's effects on blood pressure, blood flow or perhaps on slowing the development of arterial disease.

"Identification of constituents in alcoholic beverages which are responsible for this and other beneficial effects could have important clinical and therapeutic implications, " co-author Graziano Onder said in a statement.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Answers

speaking of alcohol, there is a woman at work who brought in jello shooters.

The recipe calls for a cup of boiling water to disolve the jello, and then a cup of cold water to initiate the gelling action.

replace the cup of cold water with the booze of your choice.

serve in those little communion cups that churches use. I only had one last night. whew!

I think I'm gonna make some for christmas and new years and maybe even for any day with a Y in it. LOL

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Good heavens, what a concept!

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Jello Shooters have long been a staple among those who like to drink at football games. Before security was tightened, it was easy to bring in tupperware containers of "Jello."

If you can eat a blueberry-whiskey Jello shooter, your constitution is much stronger than mine.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

me thinks OG has rushed to the kitchen to check her stock of jello! ROTFL

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Tsk, tsk. Jell-o is made by boiling the bones of dead animals. There are no such nasties in my kitchen. However, you can make a vegetarian substitute by using agar agar, from a type of seaweed. Don't snort, you have carageenan in all sorts of goodies and that's Irish seaweed. So there.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

I just looked: no carageenan in my kitchen . . . I did find another product containing MSG. I thought I had given all of those away.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

I had heard that gelatin was extracted from the hoofs of cattle. Still, I do like the stuff, especially strawberry flavored. And, it's supposed to be good for strengthening your nails. No wonder. But if ingredients get you nervous, don't eat scrapple. I like that too.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001