A recent study done by the French National Institute of Health, claims that moderate amounts of alcohol appear to improve brain function in older women. Older women who drank two or more glasses of beer or wine daily were 2.5 times more likely to score in the top 10 % on neuropsychological tests than non drinking women. It's not the more you drink, the better you score, but women who drank less than 2 alcoholic drinks per day, were only 1.7 times more likely to score in the top 10 %.

The same study found no correlation between alcohol consumption and men's cognitive ability, but stated that there was no negative effect. This was confirmed by an Australian study, that studied the functioning of lifelong male drinkers. No cognitive decline was found after numerous tests, including taking X-rays of the brains.
On the contrary, a study in the Netherlands found that men who drank regularly and moderately were less likely to have poor cognitive functioning compared to non drinkers. A French study suggests that moderate drinkers can decrease substantially the risk for senile dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Thus, there is no medical reason to ask healthy elderly people to stop drinking in moderation.
We're glad to repeat that two or three glasses of beer per day, especially when consumed with lunch and dinner, reduces the risk of a heart attack. Many studies all around the world prove that. And this is only the healthy effects of alcohol we are talking about. Remember that a living Belgian beer is also rich in vitamins (the B-complex of the yeast), and that hops is considered as very beneficial to the urinary tract, and has a cleansing effect on the human body.

(Newsletter January 1997)