Coffee: The Wonder Drug that Benefits Memory and Prevents Alzheimers

In this recent four-year study period, women over the age of 65 who drank more than three cups of coffee per day did not have the same degree of cognitive decline as the study group of over age 65 women who did not drink three cups per day.

This study focused primarily on women, who usually live longer than men and are more like to develop Alzheimer's Disease. Mild cognitive impairment is a state in- between normal brain functioning and Alzheimer's Disease. When mild cognitive impairment is present, there is at least a 40% chance that Alzheimer's will follow within four years. Since there are approximately 60% who do not go on to develop Alzheimer's Disease, it is believed that there may be a short period of time when it is possible to slow down or stop the mental deterioration

All women in the study who drank three or more cups of coffee per day showed less of a decline in memory and cognitive functions. And in women over 80 years of age who drank more than three cups per day, the study showed that their cognitive decline was as much as 70% less than those who drank one or less cups per day. The benefit of drinking more than 3 cups of coffee per day is a benefit that is only seen when the behavior has been followed for many years.

The article goes on to say that there have been other studies that have shown that caffeine can act as a shield to certain memory forming neurons and keep them from the accumulation of toxic amyloid deposits that cause destruction of the neurons.

In 2002, a study was done on the elderly men and women of Rancho Benardo, California. That study also showed that the memory and reasoning skills of women who had a life-long habit of heavy caffeine use were better than those of women who had consumed little caffeine over their lives. But, there was no difference between the groups of men who were tested. One possible reason for this was that women might metabolize caffeine differently. However, the article goes on to state that recent studies done by Finnish, Italian and other European researchers found that the benefits of caffeine on a group of men who were followed for 10 years showed just as much benefit as other studies had shown for the women.

The conclusion, so far, seems to be that coffee is neither a wonder drug that will prevent dementia and Alzheimer's Disease nor is the hope that coffee may be proved conclusively to be a benefit merely a pipe dream.. There needs to be more research done to prove the exact effects that coffee has on the memory and cognitive functions. The studies need to be on a larger group of people and with more controlled criteria. Fishers Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation states that since there are over 1000 chemical compounds in coffee other than caffeine, one of those compounds might actually be the one that is responsible for the memory and cognitive benefits in the studies.

All of the studies done so far seem to show that having three cups of coffee a day will not hurt you and may actually benefit you, unless you have another medical condition that is adverse to caffeine. As always, you should consult with your doctor about your consumption of caffeine.

Research for this article was done on these Internet sites which you may find helpful.

http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/070819/27healy.htm

www.alzinfo.org/newsarticle/templates/newstemplate.asp?articleid=239&zoneid=10