美国研究人员8月18日公布报告称，适度饮酒可以降低患痴呆以及认知障碍的风险。
美国洛约拉大学芝加哥校区的研究人员分析了1977年以来的140多项研究后发现，适度饮酒的人患痴呆和认知障碍的风险比不饮酒的人低23％。共有超过36.5万名研究对象参与了这些研究。适度饮酒被定义为男性每日饮红酒或啤酒不超过两杯，女性饮酒不超过一杯。
“每日一杯红酒有益于心脏并减少冠状动脉、心血管疾病的说法被广为接受，”参与研究的爱德华·尼夫赛说，但新研究表明，适度摄入酒精对大脑也同样有益处。
根据这项发布在《神经精神病和治疗》（Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment ）杂志网站的研究成果，饮用红酒的效果要好于啤酒，但如果饮酒过量——每天3杯以上，患痴呆的风险将增加。
尼夫赛认为，少量酒精将给脑细胞施压，使其更坚强，从而应对将来可能导致痴呆的更强压力。不过，尼夫赛不建议不饮酒的人突然开始饮酒，毕竟锻炼身体、健康饮食也可以降低患痴呆风险。
适度饮酒可降低患痴呆风险
生物探索推荐英文论文摘要：
Moderate alcohol consumption and cognitive risk
Abstract: We reviewed 143 papers that described the relationship between moderate drinking of alcohol and some aspect of cognition. Two types of papers were found: (1) those that provided ratios of risk between drinkers and nondrinkers (74 papers in total) and (2) those that, although they did not provide such ratios, allowed cognition in drinkers to be rated as “better,” “no different,” or “worse” than cognition in nondrinkers (69 papers in total). The history of research on moderate drinking and cognition can be divided into two eras: 1977–1997 and 1998–present. Phase I (1977–1997) was the era of neuropsychological evaluation involving mostly young to middle-aged (18–50 years old) subjects. Although initial studies indicated moderate drinking impaired cognition, many later studies failed to confirm this, instead finding no difference in cognition between drinkers and nondrinkers. Phase II (1998–present) was and is the era of mental status exam evaluation involving mostly older (≥55 years old) subjects. These studies overwhelmingly found that moderate drinking either reduced or had no effect on the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment. When all the ratios of risk from all the studies in phase II providing such ratios are entered into a comprehensive meta-analysis, the average ratio of risk for cognitive risk (dementia or cognitive impairment/decline) associated with moderate “social” (not alcoholic) drinking of alcohol is 0.77, with nondrinkers as the reference group. The benefit of moderate drinking applied to all forms of dementia (dementia unspecified, Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia) and to cognitive impairment (low test scores), but no significant benefit against cognitive decline (rate of decline in test scores) was found. Both light and moderate drinking provided a similar benefit, but heavy drinking was associated with nonsignificantly higher cognitive risk for dementia and cognitive impairment. Although the meta-analysis also indicated that wine was better than beer or spirits, this was based on a relatively small number of studies because most studies did not distinguish among these different types of alcohol. Furthermore, a number of the studies that did make the distinction reported no difference among the effects of these different types of alcohol. Therefore, at present this question remains unanswered. Analysis also showed that the presence of the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele eliminated the benefit of moderate drinking. However, this was based on a relatively small number of studies and several other studies have found a beneficial effect of the epsilon e4 allele. Further studies are necessary to settle this question. The benefit of moderate alcohol for cognition was seen in both men and women, although the amount and pattern of drinking is very different between the two sexes. Lastly, the finding of unaffected or significantly reduced cognitive risk in light to moderate drinkers was seen in 14/19 countries for which country-specific ratio data were available, with three of the five remaining countries showing nonsignificant reductions as well. Overall, light to moderate drinking does not appear to impair cognition in younger subjects and actually seems to reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive decline in older subjects.
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