I haven’t done any research, and all my knowledgeable is anecdotal. But I did work in a dementia ward as a caretaker for 5 years as a student job, and keeping your mind busy throughout life seems like a good idea.
Granted, academics and intellectuals in the UK are more likely (in my admittedly anecdotal experience) to be functional alcoholics than elsewhere. But still, if I were trying to estimate the median consumption among the few dozen people I know with advanced degrees, I'd say it'd fall more in the range of 2-3 bottles of wine a week or equivalent amounts of beer, which is well into the "excessive" zone in this study. Unfortunately, I seem to fall into that group as well :(
Anecdata: Back when I was a barkeeper, I've seen so. much. drinking. with Brits - and ordinary soccer fans at that, not (at least not visibly) academics. They regularly drank all other guests, including Slivovitz-trained Croats and Serbs, under the tables... and were still standing firmly, not stumbling around.
Naaaah.
Compared to the US where the age limit is 21 in many places, well that's 5 years of drinking practice aka alcohol tolerance...
Well, now. Compared to my friends in the UK, I was a consumption amateur. Even though for a time it seemed like I was subsisting on lager, I had to work to keep up during pub crawls. And my entire ancestry originates in the UK, so it was all cultural not genetic!
One Friday, one Saturday, shared with the wife/husband, which is 10-14 units a week.
Most of the functional alcoholic academic types don’t go that high until later in life, probably because alcohol and having young children don’t really mix too well.
Still completely anecdotal though. It’d be really interesting to see a comparison of this group of people and alcohol consumption. Because other research has already shown that a long education postpones dementia.