In older people with mild cognitive¹ impairment, having a drink now and then -- up to an average of one drink of alcohol each day -- may delay progression to dementia , new research suggests.

In older people with mild cognitive impairment, having a drink now and then -- up to an average of one drink of alcohol each day -- may delay progression to dementia , new research suggests.

"While many studies have assessed alcohol consumption and cognitive function in the elderly, this is the first study to look at how alcohol consumption affects the rate of progression of mild cognitive impairment to dementia," study authors Dr. Vincenzo Solfrizzi and Dr. Francesco Panza, from the University of Bari in Italy, said in a statement.

In the study, reported in the medical journal Neurology, the researchers assessed the occurrence of mild cognitive impairment in 1445 subjects and the progression to dementia in 121 patients with mild cognitive impairment.

The participants were between 65 and 84 years of age at the start of the study, and they were followed for 3.5 years. Alcohol use was assessed before the survey.

Drinking was not associated the development of mild cognitive impairment, according to the report. However, once mild impairment occurred, subjects who had up to one drink per day of alcohol had an 85 percent reduced risk of dementia compared with those who abstained².

The benefit was seen with both alcohol in general and with wine in particular.

Having more than one drink a day, however, offered no protection against dementia compared with abstaining³, the report indicates.

"The mechanism⁴ responsible for why low alcohol consumption appears to protect against the progression to dementia isn't known. However, it is possible that the arrangement of blood vessels⁵ in the brain may play a role," Solfrizzi and Panza conclude.

有轻度认知损害的老年人可以喝点酒，一项最新研究发现，每天喝点酒可以延缓病情向痴呆症的发展。

研究报告撰写者、意大利巴里大学的温森佐·索尔弗里兹博士和弗朗西斯科·潘萨博士在一份声明中说：“此前有很多研究对老年人饮酒与认知功能间的关系进行过探讨，而此项研究则首次对饮酒会如何影响轻度认知损害向痴呆症的发展速度进行了探究。”

此项研究结果在《神经学》医学期刊上发表。研究人员对1445名研究对象中轻度认知损害的发生及121名有轻度认知损害的病人向痴呆症的发展进行了研究。

研究对象的年龄在研究开始之时在65岁至84岁之间，他们被跟踪调查了三年半。研究对象的饮酒情况在调查之前已被确定。

据研究报告显示，轻度认知损害的发生与饮酒无关。但这种情况一旦发生，每天喝一杯酒的研究对象与那些不喝酒的相比，患痴呆症的几率降低了85%。

从总体来看，酒精饮品都可以实现这种功效，其中葡萄酒的功效最强。

报告指出，每天饮酒超过一杯和不喝酒一样，对预防痴呆症起不到作用。

索尔弗里兹和潘萨博士总结说：“为何少量饮酒可以预防痴呆症还没有答案。这可能与脑部血管的分布有关。”