Tonight you can enjoy a vino and some chocolate guilt free. Here's why...
The news we’ve all been waiting for – chocolate and wine may improve memory function in older adults according to two studies. So tonight you can enjoy your vino and bar of dark chocolate (almost) guilt free.
In one study, the Universities of Texas, Kentucky and Maryland have found that moderate alcohol consumption — that is, one or two drinks a day — was associated with better memory inthose aged over 60 as well as a larger hippocampus, the area of the brain thought to be responsible for memory.
Whereas in a separate study, researchers from Columbia University found that in participants that consumed a beverage high in cocoa flavonols for three months, that the dietary compounds found in cocoa beans performed better in some markers of memory performance than people who drank a low-flavonol version.
Lead author Brian Downer, from the study to come out of the Universities of Texas, Kentucky and Maryland, said the amount of alcohol people consumed in middle age had no real effect on cognitive function as they aged.
"This may be due to the fact that adults who are able to continue consuming alcohol into old age are healthier, and therefore have higher cognition and larger regional brain volumes, than people who had to decrease their alcohol consumption due to unfavourable health outcomes," he said.
"There were significant differences in cognitive functioning according to late life, but not midlife, alcohol consumption status.
"Patients who were light alcohol consumers during late life had significantly higher episodic memory compared to late life abstainers, whereas no significant differences between moderate and heavy alcohol consumers were detected compared to abstainers."
In the study from Columbia University, researchers found that participants who had consumed a high cocoa flavonol beverage performed better in some memory tests than those who consumed the low flavonol version. The researchers have suggested the improved performance may have been caused by increased blood volume in the brain.
"If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the beginning of the study, after three months that person on average had the memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old," said author Scott A Small, adding that the findings now need to be replicated in a large scale study.
The findings, which are published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias and Nature Neuroscience respectively, seemingly add weight to the idea that everything in moderation could be key to improved memory in old age.