女性每日饮酒能延缓思维衰老

Daily drink improves thinking in older women最新研究发现：女性每日饮酒能延缓思维衰老

Women who enjoy a drink of beer or wine daily have sharper minds into old age than women who abstain, U.S. researchers reported recently.

The report, based on a study of nearly 12,500 nurses, adds to the apparent benefits of light to moderate drinking, which can also prevent heart disease and stroke.

"Our study suggests that moderate consumption might provide older women some cognitive benefits," said Dr. Francine Grodstein of Brigham and Women"s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, who worked on the study.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Grodstein and colleagues said they found that drinkers aged 70 to 81 were 20 percent less likely to experience a decline in their thinking skills over a two-year period than women who did not drink at all.

On average, the women who quaffed a beer or a glass of wine each day tended to have the mental agility of someone a year and a half younger than abstainers.

Drinking more than one glass of beer or wine didn"t produce a greater benefit, the researchers said. However, few of the nurses in the study were heavy drinkers.

And it didn"t seem to matter whether the women drank wine or beer, according to the team, led by Dr. Meir Stampfer, also of Brigham and Women"s Hospital.

Moderate alcohol consumption -- about a 12-ounce (0.35 liters) beer or a six-ounce (0.18 liters) glass of wine -- is already known to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The researchers used the ongoing Nurses" Health Study, in which the women filled out questionnaires about drinking habits and took a telephone survey designed to assess thinking skills.

In an editorial in the Journal, Dr. Denis Evans and Dr. Julia Bienias of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, cautioned that the findings are not conclusive.

It may simply be, they said, "that older persons who are in good cognitive and physical health may be more likely than less healthy peers to indulge in low-to-moderate alcohol consumption as part of their social activities."

(Agencies)最近，美国研究者们的研究报告显示：女性中每天喝啤酒或葡萄酒的人和那些从不喝酒的人相比，到晚年她们的大脑思维更加敏捷。

该报告对将近12500名护士进行了调查，调查显示少量或适度饮酒不仅对身体健康有明显的好处，而且还能预防心脏病和中风。

“研究(结果)显示，适度饮酒有助于提高老年妇女的思维能力。”从事此项研究的弗朗辛· 格罗斯坦医生说，她在波士顿布莱根妇女医院和哈佛大学医学院工作。

格罗斯坦和同事们在《新英格兰医学期刊》上写道，他们发现年龄在70至81岁的妇女中，在两年时间中，饮酒者大脑思维能力衰退的可能性比戒酒者少20%。

每天喝一杯啤酒或葡萄酒的女性的思维能力平均比同龄戒酒女性年轻1岁半。

研究者们称，(每日)饮酒多于一杯并未产生更明显的保健效果，然而参与本研究的护士中鲜有过度饮酒者。

同样来自布莱根妇科医院的医生迈尔·施坦普费尔带领的小组进行的'研究结果显示，妇女饮用葡萄酒或啤酒的(保健)效果区别不大。

适度饮酒--约12盎司(0.35升)啤酒或6盎司(0.18升)葡萄酒--早已为大家所公认，可以降低患心脏病和中风的危险。

研究者们借助正在进行的“护士健康调查”来进行研究，护士们填写了有关饮酒习惯的问卷调查并接受专门为评估思维能力设计的电话调查。

在该期刊的一篇评论中，芝加哥拉什大学医学中心的丹尼斯·埃文斯医生和朱利亚·比尼亚斯医生警告说，这些发现并不是很确凿。

他们说，事实也许很简单，“那些身心健康的老年人也许比不健康的同龄人更喜欢将少量或适度饮酒作为社交活动的一部分。”

Vocabulary:

quaff: to drink (a beverage) heartily(痛饮，尽情地喝)

questionnaire: a printed form containing a set of questions, especially one addressed to a statistically significant number of subjects as a way of gathering information for a survey(调查问卷)(：夏根建)