A Spirited Old Age?

Everyone ages at a different rate, so as you age you need to regularly reassess your drinking and how it affects you. Your body's ability to process alcohol decreases with age. This is because your body's water content decreases, which means there's a higher concentration of alcohol in your blood.

However,  evidence does now strongly suggest that a small amount of alcohol - just one or two  drinks a day - can help prevent coronary heart disease in men over 40 and postmenopausal women.

The UK Government  guidelines explain that middle aged or elderly non drinkers or infrequent drinkers and  especially those at risk for heart disease “may wish to consider the possibility that light drinking may be of benefit to their overall health and life expectancy.”

Heavy alcohol consumption will, however, cause neural damage and memory loss.

You must also be careful about mixing prescription medicines and alcohol – ask your GP for advice if you are unsure.

Drinking might also make you unsteady on your feet; and if you fall, you're more likely to have a serious injury, such as broken bones.

Of course, having a daily drink isn't a panacea – but if you can manage- at any age to stick to the five ‘healthy heart’ recommendations of staying slim, not smoking, taking regular exercise, and having plenty of fruit and vegetables and little saturated fat in your diet and stick to drinking in moderation, you increase your life expectancy, due to a lower risk of  stroke, late onset diabetes and heart attack.

As well as the ‘heart- healthy’ benefits of responsible drinking for older people, research is also finding that moderate drinking may reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.