People who drank wine weekly or monthly were more than two times less likely to develop dementia in the study.
"These results don't mean that people should start drinking wine or drink more wine than they usually do," said study author Thomas Truelsen, MD, PhD, of the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Kommunehospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark.
"But the results are exciting because they could mean that substances in wine reduce the occurrence of dementia," he said. "If that's the case, we could potentially develop treatments or prevention methods based on these substances."
The researchers hypothesize that flavonoids, natural compounds that have an antioxidant effect, may be the substance responsible for the beneficial effect. Red wine is high in flavonoids. Other studies have suggested that flavonoids may account for a lower occurrence of stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases among wine drinkers.
For the study, the researchers identified the drinking patterns for wine, beer and liquor of 1,709 people in Copenhagen in the 1970s and then assessed them for dementia in the 1990s, when they were age 65 or older. Over the two decades, 83 of the participants developed dementia. Their alcohol intake was compared to that of those who did not develop dementia.
The study also found that occasional beer drinking was associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. Those who drank beer monthly were more than two times more likely to develop dementia than those who never or hardly ever drank beer.
Those who drank wine every day were no more or less likely to develop dementia than those who drank it more or less often.
One limitation of the study is that eating habits w
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American Academy of Neurology
11-Nov-2002