Drinking Keeps Your Brain Sharp, Scientists Say

A glass of wine after a long day can feel like the perfect thing to clear your mind. Based on this new study, it actually is clearing your mind — of damaging toxins and inflammation. Published in Scientific Reports, the research showed that low levels of alcohol, equivalent to two glasses of wine or a pint and a half of beer, can flush these damaging substances from your brain and help stave off Alzheimer's.

Just make sure you stop at just two glasses. A bottle a day isn't so helpful, as the researchers are sure to clarify. And excessive alcohol consumption can have the opposite effect.

The experiment was conducted on mice. One group abstained from drinking completely (such responsible mice!) and the other group kicked back with the equivalent of a couple drinks. The group consuming alcohol proved to be more efficient at clearing waste from their brains than the teetotalers.

However, "prolonged intake of excessive amounts of ethanol is known to have adverse effects on the central nervous system," Maiken Nedergaard, lead author of the study, told The Irish Times.

When mice were exposed to large amounts of alcohol over a long period of time, they experienced enough inflammation to erode their cognitive abilities and motor skills.

The ones who took it easy on the booze, however, performed just as well on cognitive tests as those who didn't drink at all. Their motor skills remained intact and their ability to clear out toxins improved.

Drinking a glass or two of wine every day might do well to keep one's memory sharp. So perhaps his abstinence from alcohol isn't the healthiest thing about President Trump's diet after all...