Island Confidential: health

One drink a day (or less) for women and 1-2 drinks (or less) for men reduces the risk of developing dementia, a study has found.

It works out to between 8 and 14 drinks per week.

The study is one of the largest — and longest — to look at the connection between alcohol and dementia.

Dr Kaycee Sink, one of the study’s authors, said:

“As of yet, we still have no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, so it is important to look for things that might help people prevent the disease.

Moderate alcohol intake has been linked to lower risk of heart attacks, stroke, dementia, and death in middle-aged adults, but there is still controversy about alcohol intake in older adults.”

Over 3,000 people aged 75 or over took part in the research, which followed them for over six years.

The study found that those who drank moderately had a 37% reduction in the risk of developing dementia compared with those who did not drink at all.

In this study there was no link between the type of alcohol people drank and the benefits.

Dr Kaycee Sink

“We were excited to see that even in older adults, moderate alcohol intake decreases the risk of dementia,.

It is important to note, however, that our study found a significantly higher risk of dementia for heavy drinkers who started the study with mild cognitive impairment.”

The study can’t tell us whether people should abstain until they are in their 70s, but it seems likely the results reflect steady habits.

Dr Kaycee Sink said:

“The participants in this study self-reported their alcohol intake at the start, but it is unusual for people to start drinking in their 70s, so we assume that the habits they reported at the start of the study reflect stable drinking habits.

Without scientific data showing that it is beneficial, I wouldn’t recommend that non-drinkers start drinking in their 70s.”

Dr Kaycee Sink explained:

“Our results suggest that older adults who are normal cognitively and drink moderately do not need to change their drinking behavior.

If you have mild cognitive impairment however, it might benefit you to restrict your drinking and certainly not exceed one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.”

The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia (Sink et al., 2009).

Read the original post on PsyBlog

Stimulate your brain with a murder mystery

THE CASE OF THE DEFUNCT ADJUNCT

Filed under: PsyBlog, Science, Science! Tagged: alcohol, dementia, disappointing, health, mental health, PsyBlog
from Here’s the disappointingly low level of alcohol consumption associated with reduced risk of dementia

75 minutes of brisk walking per week improves performance on cognitive tests

A relatively small increase in exercise is enough to boost brain function in older adults, a new study finds.

The amount of exercise that’s beneficial is equivalent to a brisk 25-minute walk several times a week.

Healthy over-65s who exercised more had better attention and ability to focus, the research found.

Professor Jeffrey Burns, co-director of the Kansas University Alzheimer’s Disease Center, said:

“Basically, the more exercise you did, the more benefit to the brain you saw.

Any aerobic exercise was good, and more is better.”

[note: “more is better” within the confines of this study. There is such a thing as too much.]

For the study, 101 healthy people over 65 were split into four groups, three of which did some extra exercise.

The three groups did 75, 150 and 225 minutes of exercise per week.

They were compared with a group that were relatively sedentary.

All the groups saw some benefit, but the more exercise people did, the better they performed in cognitive tests.

The extra mental boost from exercise above 75 minutes, though, was only small.

It wasn’t so much the duration of the exercise, the researchers found, it was more about the intensity.

Dr Eric Vidoni, the study’s first author, said:

“For improved brain function, the results suggest that it’s not enough just to exercise more.

You have to do it in a way that bumps up your overall fitness level.”

One of the participants in the study, Marjorie Troeh, 80, explained she used the study as a way of motivating herself:

“I love exercising my mind, but I hate exercising my body.

I knew about the evidence that said exercise was good for endurance and agility, but I really didn’t make any connection with that and brain health.

I’m surrounded by people who face memory problems.

I’m really anxious to do anything I can to further knowledge in this area.”

The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Vidoni et al., 2015).

This is How Little Exercise Can Boost The Aging Brain:

By Jeremy Dean at PsyBlog

BE THE FIRST TO LEARN ABOUT PROMOTIONS, EVENTS, AND NEW RELEASES: