How Coffee Can Minimize Risk Of Cognitive Impairment

Here's good news for coffee drinkers.

Coffee, particularly caffeine, has been proven to be beneficial in the defense and prevention of memory-related disorders, according to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

A study that ran over a period of three-and-a-half years involving 1,445 people aged 65 to 84 proves that coffee can help minimize the risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). 

MCI is a precursor of the dreaded Alzheimer's Disease (AD), known to be a degenerative disorder that still has no known cure. As such, prevention is key, and coffee is one scientifically proven way to do that.

Researchers hypothesize that caffeine is able to excite the production of natural defenses in the brain against AD. They believe that coffee's long-term effects may involve the "excessive" activation of what is called "adenosine A2A receptors (A2ARs)," which fights against "β-amyloid (Aβ), the toxic peptide accumulating in AD brains," the journal reports.

As such, the hypothesis can explain in part why habitual coffee intake is able to help minimize the risk of MCI in individuals.

So does this mean that more coffee means better? No.

Another finding in the study shows that even though habitual moderate intake (more than one cup of coffee per day) does help, drinking more than that significantly heightens the risk of MCI in cognitively normal individuals. Also, not or rarely drinking coffee increases the risk of MCI.

Those who drink more coffee are twice more susceptible to MCI than those who drink in habitual moderation. On the other hand, those who drink less (or don't have any caffeine intake at all) are one-and-a-half times more at risk to MCI than those with moderate caffeine habits.

Based on these findings, researchers Vincenzo Solfrizzi, MD, PhD, and Francesco Panza, MD, PhD, explain that "cognitively normal older individuals who never or rarely consumed and those who increased their coffee consumption habits had a higher risk of developing MCI."

"Therefore, moderate and regular coffee consumption may have neuroprotective effects also against MCI confirming previous studies on the long-term protective effects of coffee, tea, or caffeine consumption and plasma levels of caffeine against cognitive decline and dementia," they add. 

So what do these results mean?

Over the long run, moderate caffeine intake is really beneficial.

Apart from the study's findings, coffee also has other benefits. The National Monitor reports that coffee also helps:

- against type 2 diabetes;

- provide a rich source of antioxidants;

- lower the risk of liver cirrhosis in alcoholics;

- fight against Parkinson's disease; and

- lower the risk of heart failure.

All of these benefits can be achieved from just drinking a cup of  your favorite coffee.