Alcohol linked to better memory, bigger hippocampus among people older than 60
Good news for people who are over 60, still enjoy a glass of wine every so often, and hope to keep their memory sharp as they age: researchers have now found that moderate alcohol consumption can boost your memory, Medical Daily reports.
In the study, authors examined data from over 660 patients in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. The patients had completed surveys on their booze consumption and demographics; they were also assessed on their neuropsychological state, whether or not they had the Alzheimer’s risk factor APOE e4, and also received MRIs of their brains. The authors found that “late life, but not midlife, alcohol consumption status is associated with episodic memory and hippocampal volume,” they write in the abstract. “Compared to late life abstainers, moderate consumers had larger hippocampal volume, and light consumers had higher episodic memory.”
Ultimately this means that older people who drank alcohol every so often, in moderation, had higher episodic memory — or the memory of autobiographic events like times, places, and emotions — as well as larger hippocampal brain volume. But this doesn’t always mean there is a causation present; it could simply be a correlation. People who are able to drink alcohol may just be healthier overall than those who can’t due to illness or medication.