How beer can benefit your health

Aging and longevity.
Italian research¬ers analyzed data from 34 scientific investigations into alcohol and health conducted in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan and China. The studies involved more than one million people. They found that moderate drinking of any kind—wine, beer or spirits—lowered the risk for death by 18% in women and 17% in men. However, death rates were higher among men drinking more than four drinks a day and women drinking more than two.

Dementia.
Scientists who study memory loss and dementia divide the process into three stages of advancing severity—age-related memory loss, mild cognitive impairment and, finally, dementia. Recent studies: Italian researchers studied 121 people ages 65 to 84 with mild cognitive impairment. Those who had at least one alcoholic drink a day developed dementia at an 85% slower rate than those who didn't drink at all. And Harvard researchers, in a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that moderate drinking decreased the risk for Alzheimer's by 54% compared with not drinking.

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