Coffee – protection from alzheimer’s?

“We are not saying that moderate coffee consumption will completely protect people from Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Cao cautioned. “However, we firmly believe that moderate coffee consumption can appreciably reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s or delay its onset.”1

Forget the guilt of indulging in another coffee!  Researchers have discovered your daily coffee could protect you from Alzheimer’s Disease.

In a ground-breaking study, Dr. Cao and his colleagues suggest older adults with mild memory impairment who drink moderate levels of coffee are less likely to go on to develop Alzheimer’s Disease.

Extraordinarily, the protection seems to occur even in people with early signs of the disease, termed mild cognitive impairment, or MCI. People with MCI already have short-term memory loss and show initial Alzheimer’s pathology in a brain scan. While 15% of people with MCI would be expected to progress on into Alzheimer’s, no one in the study experienced conversion to Alzheimer’s in the two to four years of the study, according to the research co-author, Dr. Gary Arendash.

The researchers believe the caffeine reduces brain levels of beta-amyloid, the abnormal protein thought to cause Alzheimer’s development. Dr. Cao explains because Alzheimer’s starts in the brain several decades before it is diagnosed, the sooner protective therapy starts the better.  He believes moderate daily consumption of caffeinated coffee, about three cups a day, is the best current option for long-term protection against Alzheimer’s memory loss.  Study participants drank brewed coffee, and it isn’t know if instant coffee has the same protective results.

Coffee is inexpensive, easily crosses into the brain, is readily available, and has few side-effects for most people.

The health benefits of coffee isn’t only to your brain.  A study tracking the health and coffee intake of more than 400,000 older adults for 13 years published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that coffee drinkers reduced their risk of dying from heart disease, lung disease, pneumonia, stroke, diabetes, and infections.

Another coffee, anyone?

1.Cao, C. et al. (2012). High Blood Caffeine Levels in MCI Linked to Lack of Progression to Dementia. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Vol. 20. No. 3.

By Dr. Allison Lamont 

Founder and memory consultant at the Christchurch Memory Clinic.

Read more from Allison here
Stemming from my research into memory and aging, my sister Gillian Eadie and I have founded the Brain and Memory Foundation website. Click here to visit the website.