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American Morning

Study Shows Drinking May Ward Off Alzheimer's and Other Forms of Dementia

Aired January 28, 2002 - 09:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: More good news for people who enjoy a drink or two, or even three, on a daily basis. Moderate consumption of alcohol has already been shown to help prevent heart disease and strokes, but now a new study just released shows that drinking may also ward off Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with more on this new study.

Were you surprised by the results, Doctor?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Yes, I was a little surprised by that, but certainly there have been many studies like this in the past, actually looking exactly at the benefits of alcohol. We certainly heard about some of the wine studies, things like that in the past. What's sort of interesting as well is that they actually looked at moderate drinking, and they defined that as 1-3 drinks per day, Paula, and they decided that if you drank moderately, you actually had a significantly reduced chance of developing all forms of dementia.

The numbers, just to put it into perspective, 42 percent reduction for dementia, all types of dementia, and a 71 percent chance of what is known as vascular dementia, if you're a moderate drinker. So some pretty significant results out of this European study, Paula.

ZAHN: Can you explain what the link is between the results and the linkage between alcohol and dementia?

GUPTA: It's very fascinating. But basically, there's two hypotheses why alcohol may provide benefits. First of all, they think that perhaps alcohol actually prevents blood clots all over the body. That's why it prevents heart attacks, but it also might prevent small strokes, which occur and our thought to be a cause of vascular dementia.

The other thought is that alcohol might actually cause the release of a certain neurotransmitter in the brain know as a acetylcholine. That acetylcholine will act on memory centers of the brain, and possibly improve memory.

So, Paula, those are the two major hypotheses, reasons why people they think alcohol might actually be of some benefit.

ZAHN: So can you leap to conclusion, then, that people who don't currently drink 1-3 drinks a day should start drinking as a preventative measure?

GUPTA: No. In fact, the authors went to conclude certainly people who are not drinkers probably wouldn't derive any benefit from starting to drink.

And there's also been this sort of undercurrent in the scientific community, this sort of paradox of these studies, and concisely put, basically it's that you have to really look at the people that you're studying. For instance, a lot of people heard about wine, and the benefits of wine. Critics of that study are quick to point out that, listen, look at the people who are actually able to drink a glass of wine a night. Perhaps those people also have better access to health care; they have better access to good foods less fatty foods, things like that.

So you've really got to take these studies with a grain of salt and boil them down, but it certainly doesn't mean that if you're not a drinker, you should start drinking.

ZAHN: Well, I'll tell you one thing, this is probably the first hope any family's with Alzheimer's have been offered lately, at least trying to understand something that might help relieve the symptoms of the disease, right?

GUPTA: That's right. There are some exciting things coming out around Alzheimer's, Paula. We actually talked about an Alzheimer's surgery. There are different types of therapies. They are right, a lot of these things are early in the pipelines, but hopefully we'll be reporting some of that on CNN shortly.

ZAHN: All right. We will be counting on you to do just that.

GUPTA: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Thank you, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

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