You might want to drink a brew or two when you hit that AARP-age range. A new study revealed that drinking alcohol after the age of 60 can help strengthen your memory.
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, University of Kentucky, and University of Maryland found that among people ages 60 and older who don't have dementia, light to moderate alcohol consumption can produce a higher episodic memory- the ability to recall memories of events, according to FOX News. Moderate drinking is considered a maximum of two alcoholic beverages a day.
The study was published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. It revealed that moderate alcohol consumption was also linked to a larger volume in the hippocampus, a brain region critical for episodic memory, according to a UTMB press release.
In conducting the research, data was taken from more than 660 patients in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. Scientists surveyed the participants on their alcohol consumption and demographics, a battery of neuropsychological assessments, the presence or absence of the genetic Alzheimer's disease risk factor APOE e4 and MRIs of their brains, according to the study.
In the new study, midlife alcohol consumption didn't impact cognitive functioning and regional brain volumes during late life, said lead author Brian Downer, a postdoctoral fellow in the UTMB Sealy Center on Aging.
"This may be due to the fact that adults who are able to continue consuming alcohol into old age are healthier, and therefore have higher cognition and larger regional brain volumes, than people who had to decrease their alcohol consumption due to unfavorable health outcomes," Downer said in the press release.
Having five or more alcoholic beverages at once can negatively affect the brain, which could be why some people might wake up the next morning and barely remember a thing from the night before.