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People Over 50 Can’t Drink Like They Used To, But They Can Deny That They’re Drunk As Well As Ever

March 8, 2009 9:32 am 5 comments

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Researchers at the University of Kentucky revealed the obvious when they gave alcohol equal to two to three drinks and a placebo to 42 men and women aged 50 to 74 and to 26 people aged 25 to 35. As HealthDay reports, the scientists then gave each person a visual coordination and planning test, in which they had to connect numbered and
lettered dots as quickly as possible. The winners, of course, were the youngsters, whose average times were five minutes faster than those of their tipsy elders.
One big, and disturbing, difference between the two groups, researchers reported, had nothing to do with test performance:Many of the elders with dismal test scores insisted that they weren’t drunk. Sound familiar?
Read more in HealthDay.
Read an abstract from the study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

5 Comments

  • Tipsy
    March 10, 2009
    3:06 am

    I don’t believe the 5 minute difference on performing tasks is plausible…unless they were given enough alcohol to be “plastered”… or the task was on the extreme end of mental acuity where youngsters would likely outperform the older group regardless. Something seems flawed….

    Reply
  • Patrick
    March 11, 2009
    7:35 pm

    I’ll drink to that!
    - an over 40 (60) player

    Reply
  • Leslianne
    March 12, 2009
    7:57 pm

    I TOTALLY Agree with “Tipsy” about the purported results of the 5-minute test. Sounds like age discrimination to me. After all, haven’t we been lead to believe over the last 50+ years that seniors were supposed to retire at 65, that they were supposed to stop driving at 70, and they were supposed to stop enjoying sex after some age therein? Yeah right, 5-minutes slower. Let’s see some uneducated kid balance a checkbook 5-minutes faster than an educated senior after a couple of glasses of wine. Come on kid, how much money is left? Gimme a break.

    Reply
  • Leslianne
    March 12, 2009
    8:07 pm

    After refilling my wine glass, I had an additional thought about seniors purportedly insisting that they were not drunk after having been given two to three drinks.
    Seniors have done it all, seen it all, heard it all, and felt it all – a WHOLE lot more life experience than any youngsters. Seniors’ bodies have aged, have been bruised, sometimes battered, have suffered, have healed, have survived, and are still cranking along until sadly, death comes. Here’s the point: it takes alot more of anything to really phase a senior’s body and mind, up to and including alcohol. They have been there, done it, and don’t feel it as strongly as a kid without the battle experience.
    Another round, anyone?
    Seniors queue up first, please.

    Reply
  • don-don
    March 13, 2009
    3:29 pm

    seniors have enough experience to know that you can’t drive 90mph in a 55 zone while drinking. Young people seem to never learn, they are immortal.

    Reply

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