To quote the great Homer Simpson, "To alcohol, the cause and solution to, all of life's problems".

The next time someone gives you a hard time about your drinking, just turn to this new study, from the University of Georgia and say "see, even scientists say it's ok".

The UGA study found that light to moderate drinking may preserve brain function in middle-aged to older adults. On top of that, doing a little bit of drinking every day is good for you. The researchers found that people who have one or two drinks a day were 29% less likely to show signs of mental decline as they got older, compared to people who never drink.

The lead author Ruiyuan Zhang, a doctoral student at UGA’s College of Public Health, has poured ten years into this study, "to see if drinking a small amount of alcohol actually correlates with a good cognitive function". Every two years, nearly 20,000 participants, were asked a series of questions about their drinking habits, health and lifestyle. Then they had their cognitive function measured in a series of tests. To make a long story short, the researchers found that those who had a drink or two a day frequently performed better on cognitive tests over time, as compared to non-drinkers.

As much as I'd like to say in jest, that this gives you a "green light" to start drinking, this is not a free pass to over indulge. It should be noted, as Zhang explains, in the UGA Today article, “if some people don’t drink alcoholic beverages, this study does not encourage them to drink to prevent cognitive function decline.”

If you want to get into some deep reading, the entire study is available
on-line. In the meantime, grab your favorite drink, and I propose a toast to our health, "Cheers!" Remember, (and you can do that better because you have good cognitive function) "it's always 5 o'clock somewhere".

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