Senior citizens who drink alcohol in moderation may function physically better than total abstainers or heavy drinkers. What is more, says Dr. Peggy M. Cawthon (California Pacific Medical Center), there are even indications that moderate drinking may reduce the risk of inflammation.

Cawthon e.a. compared the functional restrictions, physical capabilities and drinking histories of 5 962 men of over 65 years of age, divided into various categories: problem drinkers, fitting the profile of the alcoholic, excessive drinkers (usually more than 5 drinks a day), moderate drinkers (between 7 and 20 drinks a week) and total abstainers.

Moderate drinkers scored 3% to 5% better than total abstainers for physical tests, while the performance of the excessive drinkers was much the same as that of the total abstainers.

The total abstainers had the most difficulty with physical restrictions in activities in daily life, such as walking, climbing stairs and doing strenuous household chores, followed close second by the heavy drinkers ... Moderate drinkers had fewest problems with restrictions of the physical functions and appeared to run 38% less risk of such problems compared with total abstainers.

  |terug|mail|print|top|