Study Reveals Surprising Facts About People Who Consume Alcohol and Coffee

Mississauga | Ontario | Lifestyle |

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Published December 28, 2018 at 4:36 pm

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We all want to live healthier and longer lives, don’t we?

Dieting. Exercise. Spiritual journeys. These are some of the things most people look into if they want to achieve such a lofty goal.

Conventional wisdom these days is that drinking too much coffee and alcohol is not healthy either. Many people are switching to tea these days, whether it’s herbal or some other form.

However, an American study has produced findings that show the opposite. According to a new study from the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders called The 90+ Study, a number of interesting findings were found from those who participated in the research concerning longevity.

Here are the major findings from the study:

  • People who drank moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee lived longer than those who abstained.

  • People who were overweight in their 70s lived longer than normal or underweight people did.

  • Over 40 per cent of people aged 90 and older suffer from dementia while almost 80 per cent are disabled. Both are more common in women than men.

  • About half of people with dementia over age 90 do not have sufficient neuropathology in their brain to explain their cognitive loss.

  • People aged 90 and older with an APOE2 gene are less likely to have clinical Alzheimer’s dementia, but are much more likely to have Alzheimer’s neuropathology in their brains.

The 90+ Study was initiated in 2003 to study the oldest-old, the fastest growing age group in the United States. Participants are visited every six months by researchers who perform neurological and neuropsychological tests.

Researchers at the Clinic for Aging Research and Education (CARE), located in Laguna Woods, obtain information about diet, activities, medical history, medications and numerous other factors. Additionally, participants are given a series of cognitive and physical tests to determine how well people in this age group are functioning.

Although this study was based in the United States, it’s the same North American lifestyle as it is in Canada so the comparison is fair. You may notice the point about people who are overweight in their 70s live longer than normal or underweight people.

That might sound surprising but according to another study, researchers in Canada reported the same findings after analyzing data from more than 11,000 adults followed for more than a decade.

In that study, people who met the criteria for being overweight were 17 per cent less likely to die compared to people of normal weight and overweight study participants in their 70s followed for up to 10 years had a 13 per cent lower risk of death than participants classified as normal weight.

Regarding alcohol, it may not be a license for you to go out and buy a ton of beer, but perhaps more a call for modest amounts of beer, or even wine, now and then. And additional studies have shown that coffee has health benefits such as preventing Parkinson’s disease.

One thing is certain, this sounds like a call to a trend towards more wine being drunk next year.

What do you think about the 90+ Study’s findings?

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