A recent study found that drinking alcohol could have longer-term effects than a hangover.
A survey published in The Lancet, a British medical journal, said moderate consumption of alcohol - between one and three drinks a day - can help prevent heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
Dementia refers to a group of disorders - the most common one being Alzheimer’s disease - that cause a significant change in thinking and memory.
The six-year study was conducted at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands. About 5,000 people age 55 and older who showed no signs of dementia were asked whether they ever drank alcohol.
Male subjects mostly drank beer and liquor, while the females preferred wine or fortified wine.
Four glasses of alcohol a day was considered heavy drinking.
At the end of the study, 197 participants had developed Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. People who drank between one and three drinks a day had a 42 percent lower risk of developing dementia than nondrinkers.
People who weren’t daily drinkers but had more than one drink per week had a 25 percent lower risk, and those who drank less than one glass a week were 18 percent less likely than nondrinkers to develop dementia.
Neurology Professor Daniel Murman said dementia often is caused by heart attacks and strokes. Forms of dementia are diagnosed as cognitive impairments in an individual’s brain that interfere with everyday life.
Murman said Alzheimer’s disease becomes more common with age. About 3 percent of individuals older than 65 have Alzheimer’s, and about 6 percent have the disease by the time they are 85.
“Alzheimer’s patients suffer from loss of memory, forgetting names and getting lost in familiar places,” Murman said. “Sometimes they develop speech impairments, swallowing difficulties and blood clots.”
Medical technology sophomore Sandy Mazzoni doesn’t drink alcohol but would consider it to prevent certain diseases, she said.
“After I had one hangover, I stopped drinking,” she said. “I’d consider drinking to stay healthy, but hangovers would hold me back.”
Olin Health Center educator Jasmine Greenamyer said about 60 percent of MSU students reported drinking moderately - between zero and five drinks per weekend - and many students reported not drinking at all.
“There are no drawbacks to drinking moderately,” Greenamyer said. “I think drinking is partly an expectation of student culture. Americans have a culture centered around beer that often involves excess drinking.”
International relations junior Lindsay Meehan said she drinks two or three beers per weekend.
“My roommate just turned 21, so we’ve been making mixed drinks a lot,” she said. “But if I knew drinking a glass of wine every few nights would be good for my heart, I’d probably do that.”
