Drinking wine in moderate amounts may reduce the risk of decline in thinking skills in some people and may even protect against dementia, according to a new study published in ‘Acta Neurologica Scandinavica’ by Norwegian researchers which concludes that wine drinkers perform better than teetotalers on cognitive tests.
Researchers studied the drinking habits of 5,033 men and women of 58 years of average age over a seven-year period, including some teetotalers and found wine drinkers scoring better than teetotalers on a range of tests of cognitive function, or thinking skills, says a report by WebMD..
Not drinking alcohol was linked in women, but not in men, with significantly lower scores on tests of reasoning and thinking ability. Women who reported drinking wine at least four times over a two-week period were at reduced risk of scoring poorly on the tests, compared with women who had less than one drink during the period. Moreover, women who didn't drink alcohol at all scored lowest on the tests.
The researchers say that drinking wine, "but not beer and spirits, was positively associated with cognitive function in women, whereas both beer and wine consumption was associated with better cognitive test scores in men."
They also say that "light-to-moderate wine consumption in women and light-to-moderate wine and beer consumption in men were associated with better scores on cognitive tests, compared with those with a low intake of alcohol."
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