Beer May Help Prevent Alzheimer's
FROM DR. ANDREW WEIL
Those who believe everything that tastes good is bad for you, take heart: elements in beer, it turns out, may protect against the harmful effects of aluminum on the brain, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Alcala in Madrid, Spain, in a report published in the January, 2008 issue of Food and Chemical Toxicology, pointed out that aluminum is neurotoxic and has been implicated as a causal factor in Alzheimer’s disease. But beer contains silicon, a substance that affects the bioavailability of aluminum. The study, which involved giving both an aluminum compound and beer to mice and later analyzing aluminum concentrations in brain tissue, found that the silicon in “moderately high” levels beer intake – the equivalent of two beers per day - limited the ability of aluminum to damage the brain.
Several studies have shown that moderate consumption of alcohol, on the order of one beer or glass of wine per day, may have cardio- and neuroprotective effects. If you don’t drink, you need not start, as there are other ways to forestall the development of Alzheimer’s. But moderate alcohol consumption can indeed be part of a healthy lifestyle.
