If you’re reading this blog while sipping your morning cup of coffee, you may be working to lower your future dementia risk without even realizing it.
According to medical researchers, moderate intake of caffeinated coffee (2-3 cups per day) or tea (1-2 cups per day) was associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline and long-term dementia likelihood.
“When searching for possible dementia prevention tools, we thought something as prevalent as coffee may be a promising dietary intervention — and our unique access to high quality data through studies that has been going on for more than 40 years allowed us to follow through on that idea,” said senior author Daniel Wang, MD, ScD, associate scientist with the Channing Division of Network Medicine in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. “While our results are encouraging, it’s important to remember that the effect size is small and there are lots of important ways to protect cognitive function as we age. Our study suggests that caffeinated coffee or tea consumption can be one piece of that puzzle.”
Coffee And Brain Health
For the study, researchers looked at decades of data involving 131,821 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). Participants were tracked for up to 43 years, with repeated evaluations of diet, dementia diagnoses, subjective cognitive concerns and objective cognitive performance. Researchers also analyzed how consumption of caffeinated coffee, tea and decaffeinated coffee related to long-term brain health function. Of the more than 130,000 participants involved in the study, 11,033 developed dementia over the course of the study.
Researchers were curious about the impact coffee and tea had on brain health because they contain compounds such as polyphenols and caffeine, which are believed to support brain health. These substances may help reduce inflammation and limit cellar damage, both of which are important for ideal brain health.
After looking at the data, researchers found that individuals who consumed higher amounts of caffeinated coffee had an 18% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those is rarely or never drank it. That group also experienced lower rates of subjective cognitive decline (7.8% versus 9.5%) and performed better on objective cognitive tests. Similar observations were seen among tea drinkers, but the same was not seen in decaffeinated coffee drinkers, leading researchers to believe that caffeine was the driving force behind improved long-term brain health.
Interestingly, the results were similar among individuals who were considered higher or lower risk for dementia onset based on genetic markers, meaning a couple of cups of coffee could prove protective of individuals with an elevated risk of cognitive decline in the future.
“We also compared people with different genetic predispositions to developing dementia and saw the same results — meaning coffee or caffeine is likely equally beneficial for people with high and low genetic risk of developing dementia,” said lead author Yu Zhang, MBBS, MS, PhD student at Harvard Chan School and a research trainee at Mass General Brigham.
Moderate coffee and tea consumption is just one small aspect of ideal brain health, and researchers noted that drinking these beverages isn’t the only thing you should be doing for your brain. Pursuing regular exercise, consuming a healthy diet, getting restful sleep and regularly challenging your brain with engaging mental tasks can all improve brain neuroplasticity and your likelihood of strong cognitive function long into your golden years. Drinking coffee may help, but other daily habits will prove most beneficial for your brain health.
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