This little article was in the Sydney Morning Herald today. I always knew that glass of wine was doing me good, what with the antioxidants and things, and this is even better!

Pass the bottle, I need a little think.

August 2, 2004
   
It is news guaranteed to raise a cheer among those who enjoy a glass or two: drinking half a bottle of wine a day can make your brain work better, especially if you are a woman.

Research to be published today by academics at University College, London, has found that people who even drink only one glass of wine a week have significantly sharper thought processes than teetotallers. The benefits of alcohol can be detected when a person drinks up to four or five bottles of wine per week.

In the research, part of a study set up in 1967 to monitor the long-term health of British public servants, required more than 6000 people to sit psychometric tests. Questions ranged from verbal and mathematical reasoning problems to tests of short-term memory. The public servants' performance was then matched against their drinking.

The study in the American Journal of Epidemiology took into account all alcohol consumption and was not specific to wine. But the results showed those having just one glass of wine a week did much better in the tests than more abstemious drinkers.

The benefits were most marked among women and showed no sign of flattening out with increasing consumption.

The researchers say women might benefit more than men because of the different way they metabolise alcohol.