McGill University, Office for Science and Society, Separating Sense from Nonsense: Coffee for the Brain: Evidence is mounting that moderate coffee consumption may improve cognition.
To study the effects of coffee on cognition, researchers examined data obtained over a nine-year period from a subset of 8451 cognitively unimpaired people over the age of 60. As one would expect, there was a decline in test scores as the years passed, but the decline was steepest in the high coffee consumption group. It seems that moderate consumption slows the decline. What we have here is another example of the time-tested cornerstone of toxicology, namely that dose matters. Moderate coffee consumption is fine, more than four cups a day likely is not. This result is corroborated by Harvard researchers who followed 6000 subjects over the age of fifty for seven years and found moderate coffee consumption to be associated with a 28% lower risk of dementia.
An Australian study further documents the benefits of coffee on cognition including possible protection against Alzheimer’s disease. In the “Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study,” 227 cognitively normal adults were followed for ten years. They periodically filled out questionnaires about diet and health and underwent a battery of cognitive tests. A subset of the subjects was investigated via brain imaging for the buildup of beta-amyloid, a protein that is the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The conclusion was that “increasing intake from one to two cups per day could potentially provide up to 8% decrease in executive function decline over an 18-month period and up to 5% decrease in cerebral beta-amyloid accumulation.”
The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Welcome, Indiana! up at The Other McCain.
That last one looks, either highly edited or AI produced, but cute nonetheless. That cup, well it certainly has a strange handle. AI then.
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