Melbourne: Moderate drinking later in life can help prevent dementia, a new study says.
The study, led by Kaarin Anstey of Centre of Mental Health Research at Australia National University (ANU) analysed 10,000 people worldwide and found that light to moderate drinkers were 26 per cent less likely to develop any form of dementia than non-drinkers, ABC reported on Friday.
Although people should never drink alcohol excessively, small amounts have been associated with improving some health conditions, Anstey said.
"There has been experimental studies showing that alcohol can reduce inflammation. It also reduces some of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and we know now that many of the risk factors for heart disease are similar risk factors for dementia," she said adding that people should not use the research as an excuse to drink more.
"These are observational studies and I guess all you can say from observing all these people is that the people who were drinking light to moderate amounts of alcohol regularly had a lower risk of developing dementia," she said.
"But we haven't established causality, and that's really important because these are older adults and we don't know their lifestyle earlier in life" she added.