Does Coffee Help Keep Alzheimers Away?

Have you had your morning coffee today? According to a new study, there is something in that coffee that helps keep Alzheimer's at bay. A team of researchers from the University of Florida came to the conclusion that an unknown ingredient in coffee, combined with the caffeine, is able to stimulate the blood levels of a protein called GCSF, short for granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor. They did the research on mice, and published their findings in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, which will be online this week.

Caffeinated coffee gives a natural increase of the GCSF in the blood. How this is done, nobody knows. Studies done before have suggested that high levels of coffee and caffeine does have an effect of Alzheimer's at mid-life, through to later years. A study done earlier by the same research team shows that long term consumption of caffeine in mice prone to Alzheimer's, against cognitive impairment had markedly reduced blood and brain levels of the beta-amyloid protein, that is believed to cause the disease.

Since coffee contains many ingredients, researchers have now set out to compare the effects of caffeinated and decaf coffee's on the cytokines in the blood of mice with the caffeine alone.

Cytokines are the proteins that carry signals between cells and are known to play a part in the development of Alzheimer's. They found that in mice, engineered to get Alzheimer's, and mice that were not, the enhanced intake of caffeinated coffee greatly and specifically increased the blood levels of three types of cytokines...GCSF, IL-10, and the IL-6. Neither caffeine by itself, nor the decaf had this effect. So, there is something else in coffee that helps reduce the onset of Alzheimer's.

The team is focusing on the GSCF because of a long time consuming coffee, the mice that were likely to get Alzheimer's had improved memory and performance. The GCSF was the only cytokine to have the high levels during the same time period. This was done by way of three mechanisms that could be complementary to the way caffeine holds back production of the beta-amyloid protein.

The three mechanisms are: recruitment of microglia, that brings the stem cells to the brain, to mop up the amyliod beta protein. Synaptogensis, this creates new connects between brain cells. Finally, the Neurogensis, this increases the birth of new brain cells and neurons in the brain.

The research team hopes to find the unknown ingredient so they can enhance coffee and other caffeine drinks to give long-term protection against Alzheimer's. The coffee used in these studies was 'drip' coffee, they do not know if instant coffee would have the same effect. Even though the studies were done on mice, the researchers said they are currently doing clinical testing to see if caffeine has the same effect in humans, and will publish those findings soon.

The average American drinks about 1 to 2 cups a day, less than the 4 or 5 cups the studies suggest would help to prevent Alzheimer's in humans. They also say, the best age to start with coffee for this reason, is around 30 to 50. The research team is not saying that drinking coffee will keep you from getting Alzheimer's completely, but moderate drinking of coffee will reduce the risk or the onset of the disease. Besides the coffee, they said physical and mental activity would also reduce the risk of dementia.

Source:

Medical News Today