Drinking Coffee Slashes Risk of Alzheimer’s
Drinking Coffee Slashes Risk of Alzheimer’s
Drinking coffee during midlife can slash your risk of
developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. A Finnish study found that those
who drank coffee at midlife had a lower risk of developing dementia or
Alzheimer’s disease in late-life than those who drank no coffee at all. Those
who drank three to five cups of coffee a day lowered their risk by 65 percent.
“We aimed to study the association between coffee and tea
consumption at midlife and dementia/AD risk in late-life, because the long-term
impact of caffeine on the central nervous system was still unknown, and as the
pathologic processes leading to Alzheimer’s disease may start decades before
the clinical manifestation of the disease,” says lead researcher, associate
professor Miia Kivipelto from the University of Kuopio, Finland and Karloinska
Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Coffee-drinking was categorized into three groups: low (0 to 2
cups daily), moderate (3 to 5 cups) and high (more than 5 cups). Tea-drinking
was categorized into two groups: those not drinking tea and those who drank at
least one cup daily. While all coffee drinkers had a lower risk of dementia and
Alzheimer’s disease than non-drinkers, those who drank moderate amounts of
coffee lowered their risk by a surprising 65 percent. Drinking tea had no impact
on the risk of developing dementia.
“Given the large amount of coffee consumption globally, the
results might have important implications for the prevention of or delaying the
onset of dementia/AD. The finding needs to be confirmed by other studies, but it
opens the possibility that dietary interventions could modify the risk of
dementia/AD,” wrote Kivipelto. “Also, identification of mechanisms of how
coffee exerts its protection against dementia/AD might help in the development
of new therapies for these diseases.”
