1.16.2009
Coffee Consumption and Reduced Alzheimer's Risk
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Howard Schultz must be having kittens.
Another paper appeared today documenting reduced risk of cognitive impairment in middle-aged people who drank between 3 and 5 cups of coffee per day.
"Middle-aged people who drank between three and five cups of coffee a day lowered their risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease by between 60 and 65 per cent later in life," said Miia Kivipelto, a professor at the University of Kuopio in Finland and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Other research (University of North Dakota) has shown that in rabbits, the blood brain barrier was kept intact when the rabbits were given the caffeine equivalent of one cup of coffee per day even when their diet was high in cholesterol. The scientists surmised that caffeine has a blocking effect on the absorption of potentially toxic material through the blood brain barrier.
In another study we covered earlier, caffeine was shown to accelerate the speed of transfer between neurotransmitters, increasing cognitive effectiveness and inter-neural reaction.
Gene expression was also improved simply through sniffing the aroma of coffee.
Too much caffeine though, and you might become like Timothy Leary and start hallucinating. So, like in all things, proper proportionality is required. The happy wo/man has some pleasure from her/his cup of java, but not too much, as too much violates Nature (in the Stoic sense).
Labels: caffeine, java, kivipelto, leary
