An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but your morning java might keep you sharp.
While the scientific opinions on life’s greatest pleasures — coffee, alcohol, dark chocolate — seem to be in a constant state of flux, researchers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this week are giving your caffeine addiction the thumbs-up, saying that it might actually be good for long-term cognitive function.
A new study analyzing decades of research — featuring a whopping 130,000 participants — found that daily coffee or caffeinated tea consumption actually helps to reduce dementia risk, slow cognitive decline and maintain optimal cognitive function.
That’s good news for anyone over the age of 55, whose likelihood of developing dementia has more than doubled in recent years, with medical professionals now expecting to see roughly a million new cases per year by 2060.
The caffeine study’s senior author, Daniel Wang, MD, ScD, said that “when searching for possible dementia prevention tools, we thought something as prevalent as coffee may be a promising dietary intervention.”
According to the study, coffee and tea carry certain “neuroprotective” ingredients that “reduce inflammation and cellular damage while protecting against cognitive decline.”
Previous research on the powers of caffeine was limited in its scope, unable to answer questions about the long-term impact of regular caffeine consumption or to distinguish by beverage type.
Pulling in data from two older studies that followed subjects over a period of 43 years, today’s researchers were able to draw conclusions about how coffee, caffeinated tea, and decaf all affected the cognitive health of participants over time.
And the results have them buzzing.
Of the more than 130,000 subjects in the full study, roughly 8% of them developed dementia.
But people who reported drinking the most caffeinated coffee had an 18% lower risk of dementia than those who regularly drank little or no caffeine.
Caffeinated tea saw similar results, while decaf did not, leading researchers to point to caffeine as the main culprit.
But before you stock your pantry floor-to-ceiling with beans, it’s worth considering how much coffee experts recommend you drink per day to help reduce your risk of dementia.
The research says just two to three cups of coffee per day, or one to two cups of tea, could help keep your mind in good shape.
“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,” lead author Yu Zhang, MBBS, MS, PhD student at Harvard Chan School and a research trainee at Mass General Brigham, said.
Coffee, of course, isn’t the only factor in determining your risk of dementia. Genetics play a big role, as do many other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, lack of exercise, and poor mental health, according to NYU Langone Health Research.
“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,” added Wang, who is also an associate scientist in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine.
But, at least for now, a couple cups of joe per day won’t hurt.
