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Just going to leave this here as a counterpoint, since sibling comments feel one-sided on the question: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6957093/#:~:text=In...

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That doesn't really say anything about alcohol's effect on (non-dementia related) mental clarity and sleep.

Also if you continue to read that meta-analysis beyond the sentence you linked to it seems that much larger studies did not find a correlation between reduced dementia risk and moderate alcohol consumption. In fact they found that high alcohol consumption was associated with significantly higher risk of dementia. The overall conclusion of the analysis was "Available epidemiological studies are not sufficient to verify a protective effect of alcohol on dementia development."

Dementia seems highly related, if not inversely synonymous, with mental clarity? I think your comment is a bit misleading - while it does seem clearer that _high_ alcohol consumption and alcohol "use-disorders" are correlated with elevated risk of dementia, results pertaining to light-to-moderate consumption are "heterogeneous" - I read 4 studies or meta-studies with results showing _decreased_ risk of dementia (Rotterdam, Whitehall-II, Anstey, Xhu), 2 showing no correlation (California, HUNT), and zero showing increased risk when it comes to light-to-moderate consumption. Anyone interested should of course read the linked text in full and draw their own conclusions.

Thanks for reminding me of :~:text=.

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