Scientific American toasts the bountiful benefits of beer drinking as a brain booster:
“There are human epidemiological data of others indicating that mild [to] moderate drinking may paradoxically improve cognition in people compared to abstention,” says Maggie Kalev, a research fellow in molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
In other words, memory and other brain functions were improved significantly in rats who drank a little bit every day. Not too much. And just forget about drinking to forget….
“People often drink to ‘drown sorrows,'” Kalev says. “Our results suggest that this could actually paradoxically promote traumatic memories and lead to further drinking, contributing to the development of alcoholism.”