Remember Bill and Ted on their excellent adventure? Party on dudes! Well, an article from Johns Hopkins that the middle aged brain is definitely affected by alcohol, but does it affect our memory as we get older? In our middle age drinking, especially binge drinking, has been associated with dementia. So what’s binge drinking? According to a study in epidemiology it’s considered to be consuming more than five bottles of beer, or one bottle of wine in one occasion during the month. If you drink to the point of passing out at least two times a year your risk of dementia increases 10 times. The interesting thing is that mild to moderate drinking is thought to actually have a protective effect on memory. It’s not really understood, but they think it’s due to alcohol moderation, and that it can be helpful with blood flow, and hopefully the reduction of TIAs or strokes.

The Journal of the American Medical Association claims that a person who drinks one to eight glasses of alcoholic beverages in a week reduces your chance of dementia by 54 percent. So what’s the right amount of alcohol to consume? Too much. Too little. Just right. In other words: What is your Goldilocks factor? We know what too much looks like, and not drinking at all, well, it’s not drinking. And so, let’s see? Not providing that supposed protective barrier in drinking, when you’re not drinking, the right amount for men is equal to no more than two alcoholic beverages a day.

This is the same for women. But if you’re at risk of breast cancer you really need to talk with your doctor because drinking may put you at a higher risk of breast cancer, so you may want to avoid alcohol together. So if you’ve never been a drinker you don’t need to start. If you’re drinking outside of the Goldilocks factor you want to consider your dementia risk within your alcohol consumption.