Women who drink wine are less likely to develop dementia over time than their tee totaling peers, while drinking hard liquor may raise dementia risk. Swedish researchers studied 1,462 women in the age group of 38–60 years between 1968 and 1969 and followed them up to 2002, by which time 164 had been diagnosed with dementia. The women reported their alcohol consumption at the beginning of the study and three more times during the course of the study. It was found that the risk of developing dementia was 40 per cent lower among wine drinkers, while women who drank wine and no other alcohol had a 70 per cent lower risk. Smokers were even more strongly protected against dementia if they drank wine only. But women who drank spirits were at 50 per cent greater risk of dementia. This association could be attributed to some characteristics of these women other than drinking wine; however, no such explanation could be provided based on factors like education, body mass index or smoking. One limitation of the study is that it did not look at the amount of alcohol the women consumed. Nevertheless, people who drink wine and nothing else tend to consume less alcohol overall than those who drink other types of liquor as well, so they may be more moderate drinkers for whom the benefits of alcohol outweigh any risks. These findings cannot be generalised to men, who tend to have different drinking habits than women, for example, being more likely to prefer spirits. But even for women, more research is needed on this issue before recommending them to start drinking, continue drinking wine, or increase their wine intake for health.
American Journal of Epidemiology,
April 2008