Go ahead and enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or a beer after you do the yard work.

It turns out that moderate alcohol consumption may protect you from developing Alzheimer's disease as long as you are otherwise healthy, according to Spanish researchers.

HealthDay News reports that those who gain the greatest protective benefit from moderate drinking are women who don't smoke.

The study: Led by Ana M. Garcia from the University of Valencia, along with researchers from the Valencia government and the Municipal Institute of Medical Investigation in Barcelona, the team compared the medical background and the smoking and drinking habits of people with Alzheimer's disease against a group of healthy individuals. Both groups were similar in age and in gender breakdown.

The results: The team found that while smoking alone had no impact either way on Alzheimer's risk, moderate drinking did seem to reduce the risk for the disease. Why? Alcohol affects the brain's neuronal receptors.

"Our results suggest a protective effect of alcohol consumption, mostly in non-smokers, and the need to consider interactions between tobacco and alcohol consumption, as well as interactions with gender, when assessing the effects of smoking and/or drinking on the risk of Alzheimer's disease," Garcia said in a news release.

The study findings were published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

--From the Editors at Netscape