14 DAY TRIAL // Having looked at the medical records of as many as 660 people, researchers found that older people who regularly enjoy a glass of wine or some other alcoholic beverage tend to have an easier time remembering past events.
Otherwise put, it appears that light and moderate alcohol consumption goes hand in hand with higher episodic memory, i.e. that's science-talk for the ability to recall things that happened ages ago.
Writing in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, the US scientists behind this study say that moderate alcohol consumption appears to go hand in hand with a larger volume in a brain area dubbed the hippocampus.
This find is all the more important given the fact that, as shown by previous investigations, the hippocampus plays a crucial role in episodic memory, EurekAlert informs.
Based on information obtained while experimenting on animals, it is believed that light and moderate alcohol consumption benefits the hippocampus by encouraging the formation of new brain cells.
Then again, it is also possible that the consumption of alcoholic beverages triggers the release of chemicals involved in cognition and information processing.
As encouraging as the findings of this investigation might be, it's important to note that abusing alcohol, i.e. gulping down five or more alcoholic beverages on just one occasion, can lead to serious health trouble.