From: Jfvirey@aol.com
Date: Wed Feb 17 1999 - 11:45:37 MST
The original post on the positive effects of moderate consumption on the onset
of Alzheimer's disease intrigued me, and I did a search on the net for the
original source. Here is the article I found. I believe it does say that
drinking 3 to 4 glasses a day is correlated with an 80% reduction in dementia
and a 70% reduction of Alzheimer's disease, though it says so in a language I
could never hope to emulate.
Jean-Francois Virey,
Douai, France.
Rev Neurol (Paris) 1997 Apr;153(3):185-192
Wine consumption and dementia in the elderly: a prospective community study in
the Bordeaux area.
Orgogozo JM, Dartigues JF, Lafont S, Letenneur L, Commenges D, Salamon R,
Renaud S, Breteler MB
Unite de Recherche Epidemiologique, INSERM U 330, Universite de Bordeaux II,
France.
Alcoholism is a possible cause of dementia, mainly through associated
nutritional deficiencies and, rarely, through acute direct toxicity. However
alcohol consumption was not found to be a risk factor in previous
epidemiologic studies. We prospectively studied 3,777 community residents aged
65 and over, in the districts of Gironde and Dordogne. Average daily alcoholic
consumption was recorded at baseline. Incident cases of dementia and
Alzheimer's disease were screened at follow-up with explicit criteria. At 3
years, 2,273 subjects not demented at baseline were still available for
follow-up. Wine was the only alcoholic beverage reported by more than 95 p.
100 of regular drinkers. In the 318 subjects drinking 3 to 4 standard glasses
per day (> 250 and up to 500 ml), categorized as moderate drinkers, the crude
odds ratio (OR) was 0.18 for incident dementia (p < 0.01) and 0.25 for
Alzheimer's disease (p < 0.03), as compared to the 971 non-drinkers. After
adjusting for age, sex, education, occupation, baseline MMSE and other
possible confounders, the ORs were respectively 0.19 (p < 0.01) and 0.28 (p <
0.05). In the 922 mild drinkers (< 1 to 2 glasses per day) there was a
negative association only with AD, after adjustment (OR = 0.55; p < 0.05). The
inverse relationship between moderate wine drinking and incident dementia was
explained neither by known predictors of dementia nor by medical,
psychological or socio-familial factors. Considering also the well documented
negative associations between moderate wine consumption and cardiovascular
morbidity and mortality in this age group, it seems that there is no medical
rationale to advise people over 65 to quit drinking wine moderately, as this
habit carries no specific risk and may even be of some benefit for their
health. Advising all elderly people to drink wine regularly for prevention of
dementia would be however premature at this stage.
PMID: 9296132, UI: 97441913
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