17 replies to this topic

[christianbber]

I've never been a big drinker. I'm a health nut and to be honest last night was my first beer I drank and in a strange, weird way it made me very motivated, I was able to concentrate A LOT better !

So to test this I went on lumosity.com which I use everyday to keep my brain fresh. It has a bunch of brain training games.

The games that required quick reaction I went below average. But the other games such as math, concentration, etc.. I seemed to do the same if not better.

So I got to thinking about the cognitive benefits of alcohol and found these,

Research Study Suggests How Alcohol Might Improve Memory

Much research demonstrates that drinking alcohol in moderation improves brain function and reduces the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

A new study now suggests that moderate alcohol consumption may also help improve short-term memory as well. However, the researchers found that heavy drinking enhanced highly emotional memories and apparently reinforced them. They conclude that "drinking to forget" is unlikely to be true.

The researchers at New Zealand ‘s Auckland University are investigating the mechanisms whereby moderate alcohol consumption improves short-term memory. They concluded that adaptive changes in hippocampal NMDA receptor expression may contribute to the positive effects of ethanol on cognition. Their study, conducted on rats, holds the potential for developing new treatments for memory disorders such as dementias including Alzheimer's disease as well as for victims of stroke.

Drinking Alcohol Improves Brain Functioning

People who consume as little as a single drink of alcoholic beverage per week have significantly greater cognitive functioning -- -sharper thought processes --- than teetotalers. That’s the finding of a study of over 6,000 British civil servants.

The beneficial mental effects of alcohol were found when a person drinks up to about 30 drinks per week, and increased with consumption. The researchers did not test the effects of higher levels of alcohol drinking.

These latest findings on the benefits of alcohol come from a study of the long-term health of civil servants, known as the Whitehall Study, established in 1967. Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health, led the analysis, which involved giving psychometric tests to all subjects. The questions ranged from verbal and mathematical reasoning to tests of short-term memory. Mental functioning was then compared to drinking patterns. Abstainers were twice as likely as occasional drinkers to receive the lowest test scores.

The research team suggests that alcohol (beer, wine, or liquor) improves mental functioning because it increases blood flow to the brain. The results are published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Dr. Guy Ratcliffe, the Medical Director of the Medical Council on Alcohol, said that “this is a well-researched study, and it’s important that information such as this is available so that people can make informed decisions about alcohol consumption.”

A study of 1,018 men and women age 65-79 whose physical and mental health was monitored for an average of 23 years found that “drinking no alcohol, or too much, increases risk of cognitive impairment,” in the words of the editor of the British Medical Journal, which published the study.

These results are consistent with other research demonstrating that light to moderate drinking has a protective effect on the brain compared to abstention and heavy drinking.

Only that minority of the population who are carriers of the apolipoprotein e4 allele gene had an increased risk of dementia with frequent alcohol consumption.

Those who simply read the headlines, such as “Frequent Alcohol Drinking in Middle Age Harms the Brain” and “Drinking Alcohol in Your 40’s Increases Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment, ” would be mislead. They wouldn’t realize that the study actually confirms that moderate drinking is better for the brain than either abstaining or drinking heavily for most people. That’s the finding of most of the research on the subject.

More can be found at http://www2.potsdam....1133289748.html

What say you?

[VoidPointer]

I've never been a big drinker. I'm a health nut and to be honest last night was my first beer I drank and in a strange, weird way it made me very motivated, I was able to concentrate A LOT better !

So to test this I went on lumosity.com which I use everyday to keep my brain fresh. It has a bunch of brain training games.

The games that required quick reaction I went below average. But the other games such as math, concentration, etc.. I seemed to do the same if not better.

So I got to thinking about the cognitive benefits of alcohol and found these,

Research Study Suggests How Alcohol Might Improve Memory

Much research demonstrates that drinking alcohol in moderation improves brain function and reduces the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

A new study now suggests that moderate alcohol consumption may also help improve short-term memory as well. However, the researchers found that heavy drinking enhanced highly emotional memories and apparently reinforced them. They conclude that "drinking to forget" is unlikely to be true.

The researchers at New Zealand ‘s Auckland University are investigating the mechanisms whereby moderate alcohol consumption improves short-term memory. They concluded that adaptive changes in hippocampal NMDA receptor expression may contribute to the positive effects of ethanol on cognition. Their study, conducted on rats, holds the potential for developing new treatments for memory disorders such as dementias including Alzheimer's disease as well as for victims of stroke.

Drinking Alcohol Improves Brain Functioning

People who consume as little as a single drink of alcoholic beverage per week have significantly greater cognitive functioning -- -sharper thought processes --- than teetotalers. That’s the finding of a study of over 6,000 British civil servants.

The beneficial mental effects of alcohol were found when a person drinks up to about 30 drinks per week, and increased with consumption. The researchers did not test the effects of higher levels of alcohol drinking.

These latest findings on the benefits of alcohol come from a study of the long-term health of civil servants, known as the Whitehall Study, established in 1967. Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health, led the analysis, which involved giving psychometric tests to all subjects. The questions ranged from verbal and mathematical reasoning to tests of short-term memory. Mental functioning was then compared to drinking patterns. Abstainers were twice as likely as occasional drinkers to receive the lowest test scores.

The research team suggests that alcohol (beer, wine, or liquor) improves mental functioning because it increases blood flow to the brain. The results are published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Dr. Guy Ratcliffe, the Medical Director of the Medical Council on Alcohol, said that “this is a well-researched study, and it’s important that information such as this is available so that people can make informed decisions about alcohol consumption.”

A study of 1,018 men and women age 65-79 whose physical and mental health was monitored for an average of 23 years found that “drinking no alcohol, or too much, increases risk of cognitive impairment,” in the words of the editor of the British Medical Journal, which published the study.

These results are consistent with other research demonstrating that light to moderate drinking has a protective effect on the brain compared to abstention and heavy drinking.

Only that minority of the population who are carriers of the apolipoprotein e4 allele gene had an increased risk of dementia with frequent alcohol consumption.

Those who simply read the headlines, such as “Frequent Alcohol Drinking in Middle Age Harms the Brain” and “Drinking Alcohol in Your 40’s Increases Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment, ” would be mislead. They wouldn’t realize that the study actually confirms that moderate drinking is better for the brain than either abstaining or drinking heavily for most people. That’s the finding of most of the research on the subject.

More can be found at http://www2.potsdam....1133289748.html

What say you?

Moderate drinking (1-2 drinks per day) seems to be modestly beneficial for heart health. Excessive drinking is known to cause longer term damage to the brain. After one beer my abilities suffer for sure.
Keep in mind more people are killed per year by alcohol than all other drugs(including ADD stims) combined. Also someone under the influence of alcohol is generally much more dangerous and harder to deal with than someone who is really stoned, or under the influence of psychiatric meds.

but dont get me wrong, I enjoy a nice IPA..

[christianbber]

Moderate drinking (1-2 drinks per day) seems to be modestly beneficial for heart health. Excessive drinking is known to cause longer term damage to the brain. After one beer my abilities suffer for sure.
Keep in mind more people are killed per year by alcohol than all other drugs(including ADD stims) combined. Also someone under the influence of alcohol is generally much more dangerous and harder to deal with than someone who is really stoned, or under the influence of psychiatric meds.

but dont get me wrong, I enjoy a nice IPA..

Ironically I also read more lives are saved due to the health benefits of MODERATELY consuming alcohol.....

[tritium]

I've never been a big drinker. I'm a health nut and to be honest last night was my first beer I drank and in a strange, weird way it made me very motivated, I was able to concentrate A LOT better !

I have had similar experiences. A few weeks after a few drinks, I feel more creative and more motivated, with an increased feeling of well-being. This may have to do with the theory that learning and creativity are opposing forces. Breaking connections may be beneficial to creativity, while making connections is the basis for learning. Moderate alcohol consumption may help with breaking weak connections in our brain in order to allow room for new connections to be made.

http://www.leader-va...entDetailID=190

[niner]

Most of the observed benefits of drinking are of the long term variety, although if there is a test situation where anxiety might be a confounding factor, alcohol might be helpful. I read about situation where some organization set up a driving test where drivers were tested sober, then with increasing amounts of alcohol. Apparently average scores improved with one drink, although the drivers may have also learned the course the first time. Subsequent increases in EtOH dosage caused a distinct fall-off in performance. I set my highest-ever score on Tempest (an 80's arcade game) after a couple beers. My friend and I had a beer before a physics exam, and got the two highest scores in the class. I later tried extending that experiment to a class I wasn't as good at, so I had a couple more beers to compensate. It didn't end well.

[VoidPointer]

Moderate drinking (1-2 drinks per day) seems to be modestly beneficial for heart health. Excessive drinking is known to cause longer term damage to the brain. After one beer my abilities suffer for sure.
Keep in mind more people are killed per year by alcohol than all other drugs(including ADD stims) combined. Also someone under the influence of alcohol is generally much more dangerous and harder to deal with than someone who is really stoned, or under the influence of psychiatric meds.

but dont get me wrong, I enjoy a nice IPA..

Ironically I also read more lives are saved due to the health benefits of MODERATELY consuming alcohol.....

Source?

here are a few of mine;

http://www.catholic....ry.php?id=40343

http://www.cdc.gov/n...ats/alcohol.htm

http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/28

http://www.guardian....ath-toll-rising



Again I like the odd beer(or two), but thinking alcohol is an effective nootropic is BS.

[Delta Gamma]

Anecdotally, a beer or two raises my ability to focus but my working memory is shot. Ethanol also has some interesting effects on brain glucose uptake and metabolism that may contribute to the effect.

[owls]

good luck with any amount of alcohol ever enhancing cognition. wishful thinking at best

[JLL]

I wish more studies would specify what "moderate drinking" means exactly. How many drinks is that? I've seen an entire book on alcohol and longevity (saying moderate drinking increased lifespan) and yet no mention was made of how many drinks that means.

In some longevity studies (on humans) 1 drink per day is best, but up to 7 drinks per day is better than zero. Though that applies to Caucasian males only, women and Asians have lower limits.

The cognitive function improvement seems odd... of course, after a glass of wine it's easier to concentrate ("takes the edge off"), but I would be surprised if I scored higher in IQ tests etc after a few drinks.

[Imagination]

It does seem to help for communication purposes, and also reading books I find, you can take it in better, but things like maths it makes it much worse.

So it seems to help my creative side, but also dulls the logical thinking side of things.

Most of my job is logical, so if I have a few pints at lunch, any work in the afternoon isn't going to happen.

[Imagination]

I wish more studies would specify what "moderate drinking" means exactly. How many drinks is that? I've seen an entire book on alcohol and longevity (saying moderate drinking increased lifespan) and yet no mention was made of how many drinks that means.

In some longevity studies (on humans) 1 drink per day is best, but up to 7 drinks per day is better than zero. Though that applies to Caucasian males only, women and Asians have lower limits.

The cognitive function improvement seems odd... of course, after a glass of wine it's easier to concentrate ("takes the edge off"), but I would be surprised if I scored higher in IQ tests etc after a few drinks.

If I remember getting home after a night out I always think of that as moderate drinking...doesn't happen too often!

[ultranaut]

good luck with any amount of alcohol ever enhancing cognition. wishful thinking at best

Why is this wishful thinking? It very clearly enhances certain types of cognition, or certain aspects of cognition. Obviously, alcohol doesn't really "make you smarter" (in the general sense), but at the very least the disinhibition it produces can drastically increase some forms of creativity.

[kassem23]

good luck with any amount of alcohol ever enhancing cognition. wishful thinking at best

Why is this wishful thinking? It very clearly enhances certain types of cognition, or certain aspects of cognition. Obviously, alcohol doesn't really "make you smarter" (in the general sense), but at the very least the disinhibition it produces can drastically increase some forms of creativity.

There is a reason that Hemingway was a drunkard.

[fql]

The placebo effect at its finest.

[fairy]

While researchers have found that moderate alcohol consumption in older adults is associated with better cognition and well-being than abstinence,[http://goo.gl/iIWHsb] excessive alcohol consumption is associated with widespread and significant brain lesions. http://goo.gl/YXoKQ6
 
At present, due to poor study design and methodology, the literature is inconclusive on whether moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of dementia or decreases it.[74] Evidence for a protective effect of low to moderate alcohol consumption on age related cognitive decline and dementia has been suggested by some research, however, other research has not found a protective effect of low to moderate alcohol consumption.[75] Some evidence suggests that low to moderate alcohol consumption may speed up brain volume loss [http://goo.gl/4nzEwY] http://goo.gl/1hXEVL

In a 2010 long-term study of an older population, the beneficial effects of moderate drinking were confirmed. Both abstainers and heavy drinkers showed an increased mortality of about 50% over moderate drinkers after adjustment for confounding factors.[46] http://goo.gl/bfz8SL

 

Unless you're old, I don't think moderate alcohol consumption is a good idea.

[ModaMinds]

Necro-posting at its finest. Anyway, some evidence has been shown for the Ballmer peak.

[fairy]

Sorry. Found this thread and got interested.

[username]

http://www2.potsdam....lAndHealth.html

 

Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementia

• A study in France found moderate drinkers to have a 75% lower risk for Alzheimer's Disease and an 80% lower risk for senile dementia.¹⁰⁹
• Research on 7,460 women age 65 and older found that those who consumed up to three drinks per day scored significantly better than non-drinkers on global cognitive function, including such things as concentration, memory, abstract reasoning, and language. The investigators adjusted or controlled for such factors as educational level and income that might affect the results, but the significant positive relationships remained.¹¹⁰
• Researchers in Australia studied 7,485 people age 20 to 64 years. They found that moderate drinkers performed better than abstainers on all measures of cognitive ability. Sex, race, education and extroversion-introversion failed to account for the findings.¹¹¹
• Older people who drink in moderation generally suffer less mental decline than do abstainers, another study finds. Over one thousand persons age 65 and older were studied over a period of seven years. Overall, light and moderate drinkers experienced less mental decline than did non-drinkers.¹¹²
• Women who consume alcohol (beer, wine or distilled spirits) moderately on a daily basis are about 20% less likely than abstainers to experience poor memory and decreased thinking abilities, according to data from 12,480 women age 70 to 81 who participated in the long-term study.¹¹³
• A study of about 6,000 people age 65 and older found that moderate drinkers have a 54% lower chance of developing dementia than abstainers. The type of alcohol beverage consumed (wine, spirits, or beer) didn't make a difference in the protective effects of drinking in moderation.¹¹⁴
• A study of 7,983 people aged 55 of age or older in The Netherlands over an average period of six years found that those who consumed one to three drinks of alcohol (beer, wine, or distilled spirits) per day had a significantly lower risk of dementia (including Alzheimer's) than did abstainers.¹¹⁵
• A study of over 400 people at least 75 years old who were followed for a period of six years found that drinkers were only half as likely to develop dementia (including Alzheimer's disease) as similarly-aged abstainers from alcohol. Abstainers were defined as people who consumed less than one drink of alcohol per week.¹¹⁶
• Moderate drinking among older women can benefit memory according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. Moderate drinkers performed better on instrumental everyday tasks, had stronger memory self-efficacy and improved memory performance." The performance memory tests include such topics as remembering a story, route, hidden objects, future intentions and connecting random numbers and letters. In all cases, the group who drank scored better than those who did not drink. Women who drank alcohol in moderation (defined as consuming up to two drinks of beer, wine or spirits per day) also performed better on attention, concentration, psychomotor skills, verbal-associative capacities and oral fluency.¹¹⁷
• A study of 1,018 men and women age 65-79 whose physical and mental health was monitored for an average of 23 years found that "drinking no alcohol, or too much, increases risk of cognitive impairment," in the words of the editor of the British Medical Journal, which published the study.
• A study of over 6,000 people in the U.K. found that those who consume as little as a single drink of alcoholic beverage per week have significantly greater cognitive functioning than teetotalers. Abstainers were twice as likely as occasional drinkers to receive the lowest cognitive functioning test scores. The beneficial mental effects of alcohol were found when a person drinks up to about 30 drinks per week, and increased with consumption. The researchers did not test the effects of higher levels of alcohol drinking. The research team suggests that alcohol (beer, wine, or liquor) improves mental functioning because it increases blood flow to the brain.¹¹⁸
• Moderate alcohol consumption protects older persons from the development of cognitive impairment, according to a study of 15,807 Italian men and women 65 years of age and older. Among the drinkers only 19% showed signs of mental impairment compared to 29% of the abstainers. The relationship continued even when other factors in cognitive impairment, such as age, education, and health problems were considered.¹¹⁹
• An 18-year study of Japanese-American men found "a positive association between moderate alcohol intake among middle-aged men and subsequent cognitive performance in later life." Moderate drinkers scored significantly higher on the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI), which includes tests of attention, concentration, orientation, memory, and language. Both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers had the lowest CASI scores.¹²⁰
• The moderate consumption of alcohol was associated with superior mental function among older women compared to abstainers in a study of 9,000 women aged 70 to 79 over a period of 15 years. The women's mental function was assessed with seven different tests. After adjusting for other factors that might affect mental function, the researchers found that the women who drank in moderation performed significantly better on five of seven tests. They also performed significantly better on a global score that combined all seven tests. The researchers found that the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on cognitive functioning was the equivalent of being one to two years younger.¹²¹
• Drinking alcohol (beer, wine or liquor) in moderation is one of the strategies that can reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia in later life according to a review of research conducted by scholars from the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They systematically analyzed the existing research to identify how dementia can be reduced. Abstaining from alcohol and abusing alcohol are both risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia.¹²²