Coffee has a new ally in a new research conducted by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee. The study also showed that it does not impact Alzheimer's only but other diseases as well.
According to the study, drinking three to five cups of coffee a day can help reduce the risk of dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Scientists found that the combination of caffeine, polyphenol, and antioxidants in coffee has great contributing factors in combating these diseases.
The effect of caffeine in the cognitive health is more evident among elderly males. According to Rodrigo A. Cunha, a professor at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, moderate coffee drinking greatly impacts cognitive health.
The study involved 1,409 individuals who were examined after 21 years. At the time of the follow-up, these individuals were between 65 and 71 years old. The scientists found that there was a 65 percent reduced risk of Alzheimer's among those who drank three to five cups of coffee everyday.
This is not the study about the effects of coffee in cognitive health. In a separate study conducted among 716 Finnish men, those who were coffee drinkers showed to be more mentally healthy than those who do not drink coffee.
According to the scientists, caffeine seemed to increase the granulocyte-colony stimulating factor which is responsible to cognitive health and performance. That's because coffee acts as an adenosine receptor antagonist that blocks receptors responsible for tau entanglements.
A separate study has shown that even decaffeinated coffee has its own benefits - it lowers the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes which is related to Alzheimer's. According to the author's of the study, those who drink decaffeinated coffee has 33 percent reduced risk in developing Type 2 diabetes than those who are non-coffee drinkers. Furthermore, 70 percent of those who were diagnosed with this type of disease develop Alzheimer's later on in life.
