Addiction in Society

Addiction—the thematic malady for our society—entails every type of psychological and societal problem

by Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D.

Only One Food Has Been Shown to Prevent Dementia

You're not allowed to know the only food that prevents dementia, sorry.

Published on May 29, 2012 by Stanton Peele in Addiction in Society

No known agent for preventing dementia, or general cognitive decline, has ever been identified, except for. . . alcohol.

Sorry. We're not allowed to know this — you won't find it trumpeted by government and other health agencies, that's for sure! A comprehensive meta-study published in Age and Ageing in 2008 — one combining the results of more than 20 studies selected for methodological soundness, and that thus has a firmer foundation than any individual result — found a reduction of 35-45 percent in the risk of cognitive decline or dementia among regular light-moderate drinkers currently age 65 or older.

This effect is not as decisive as alcohol's powerful role in preventing cardiovascular disease (and thus death, since heart disease is our leading killer), which we're sort of, almost allowed to know about. An analysis in the current issue of Psychiatry Investigation, "Alcohol and Cognition in the Elderly: A Review," notes the evidence of this cognitive benefit, but finds it is less well-grounded than that for alcohol's role in reducing heart disease.

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It's ironic, don't you think, when something we are constantly warned against is consistently, increasingly, reliably identified as being the single agent that best prevents heart disease, death, and dementia? Wonder why the universe — and America — work that way?

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P.S. (June 2):

Among the comments to this post:

Submitted by Kerb Groolgman on June 2, 2012 - 2:21am.

I sussspect the researcher had done a wee bit too much tippling prior to publication. Was she sponsored by a specific distillery? I guess if you are dead from cirrhosis its less likely that you will decline into dementia. How can you tell whether a drunk is not demented anyway?

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Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D., is a pioneering figure who has changed many of our ideas about addiction. He was voted best addiction blogger by All Treatment.

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