I just ran across this article in the Oakland Tribune and thought it would be of interest.

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Drinking may help thinking, study says
By Mark Fisher, COX NEWS SERVICE
Article Last Updated: 05/02/2007 10:17:46 AM PDT

COULD IT be true? Do wine drinkers (and others who consume alcohol in moderation) think more clearly than teetotalers?
Well, a qualified, cautious — yes.

That's a conclusion of a Columbia University study that found that those who consume alcohol have greater cognitive ability — as a group, we appear to suffer less "cognitive decline" over time — than those who never drank, according to research findings published in the journal Neuroepidemiology.

In the study, titled "Reported Alcohol Consumption and Cognitive Decline: The Northern Manhattan Study," researchers interviewed people by phone, putting them through a battery of tests, such as asking them to immediately recall a list of 10 words that had just been read to them, and doing the same thing after a short delay, along with other brain-testing exercises. The results showed that drinkers showed less decline over time than those who never drank.

This one sounded so far-fetched when I first read it in an online Wine Spectator story that I sent an e-mail to the lead researcher in the study — Dr. Clinton Wright, assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Division of Stroke and Critical Care — to make sure I wasn't, um, confused.

Wright confirmed the conclusions but also cautioned that, "no one population-based study provides proof. Alcohol abuse is a major public health issue."