Coffee linked to less cognitive decline
Q: Is there any harm in continuing to drink caffeinated coffee now that I am 65? I drink about three cups a day, all in the morning.
Jen G., San Francisco
A: There are remarkable benefits from drinking coffee — and perhaps the most far-reaching are the brain benefits. Three studies from 2015 and 2017 found that it is linked to a significant decrease in the risk of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. And a new study in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggests the brain-protecting benefits are substantive.
The researchers investigated whether coffee intake affected the rate of cognitive decline over 10 years in more than 200 people ages 60 and older. It turns out that higher coffee intake seems to slow accumulation of amyloid protein in the brain (it’s associated with Alzheimer’s) and was linked to positive results in the areas of executive function and attention.
In practical terms, the researchers say it appears that if you up your intake of coffee from one to two cups a day you’re potentially going to have 8% LESS of a decline in executive function over 18 months and a 5% reduction in the accumulation of amyloid tangles — one hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Your three cups a day, Jen, is a good amount.
They also found that if you follow the benefits of coffee drinking over 126 months, as the study did, you see higher baseline coffee consumption was associated with measurably slower amyloid accumulation and lower risk of progressing to “moderate,” “high” or “very high” amyloid burden.
Is it just caffeine that bestows these benefits? The researchers say preliminary info shows that caffeine may not be coffee’s sole contributor to delaying or preventing Alzheimer’s disease. Other components of coffee — high-test and decaf — such as cafestol and kahweol, which are powerful anti-inflammatories, and eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide, which enhances brain-friendly enzyme activity, have also been seen to positively affect cognitive impairment in animals in various studies. So drink up (just no added sugar, cream or milk).