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?