A coffee a day can help keep dementia at bay

THESE days, I have a fairly fixed morning ritual: after staggering out of bed at 7am and doing resistance exercises (press-ups, squats and the dreaded plank) I have a cup of black tea and take our dog for a walk, then have a cold shower, breakfast and the first of several cups of coffee.

So I was dismayed to read about a study, published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience, linking high coffee drinking with a higher risk of dementia. But when I looked at the details of the research, I was relieved to see the link was only true if you were drinking more than six cups a day.

Even better, it turned out that light drinkers (one to two cups a day) not only had bigger brains and 53 per cent less chance of developing dementia than heavy coffee drinkers, but they also had bigger and healthier brains than those who didn’t drink the beverage at all, or who drank only decaf. This may be because as well as being a stimulant, coffee is rich in healthy antioxidants and other antiinflammatory compounds. This could also explain the findings of a review of 200 studies, published in the BMJ in 2017, showing that moderate coffee drinking was associated with a lower risk of heart disease and cancer, and a lower rate of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

You might also want to avoid gulping down your coffee first thing. Early in the morning,

levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, start to rise, perking you up for the day ahead. They peak around 30 minutes after you wake, then start to fall.

If you top up with caffeine while cortisol levels are high, it just replaces the boost you’d ordinarily get, rather than adding to it.

It takes around 20 minutes for the caffeine to really hit your brain — so if you wait at least 40 minutes for your first coffee, you should start to feel the effects around an hour after waking, just as the cortisol is beginning to wear off. Delaying that first delicious sip also gives you something to look forward to!

A FEW weeks ago, I wrote about my terrible posture that’s making me look years older. Since then, I’ve started yoga — and invested in a posture brace (I bought the most popular version from the internet). It seems to be working. Even when I am not wearing it, I’m standing better and a friend who I haven’t seen for several months, said: ‘Wow, you’re looking great! Have you been working out?’ All very encouraging.