Heavy drinkers likely to live long without dementia, claims 30-year study

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego conducted a study spanning 30 years and claim that people who consume up to three alcoholic drinks daily are likely to live long and not suffer from dementia or other cognitive impairments, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

For the study, 1,000 middle class white men and women in California were tracked from 1984 to 2013.

“This study is unique because we considered men and women's cognitive health at late age and found that alcohol consumption is not only associated with reduced mortality, but with greater chances of remaining cognitively healthy into older age,” lead author Dr Linda McEvoy told the Daily Mail.

Researchers also discovered 'moderate to heavy' drinkers were likely to be cognitively healthy than non-drinkers. Drinking amounts were defined by the guidelines from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

“It is important to point out that there were very few individuals in our study who drank to excess, so our study does not show how excessive or binge-type drinking may affect longevity and cognitive health in ageing," Dr McEvoy told the Daily Mail.

Excessive alcohol consumption researchers warned is known to cause dementia.

Researchers also pointed out that their findings may no apply to all races as they focused mainly on white middle class people.