What Can Coffee do to Your Brain?

Coffee has always been a topic of debate amongst researchers and health experts. Some say that the stimulant caffeine found in coffee is bad for you and that it can temporarily increase your heart rate and blood pressure. But others believe that coffee contains a string of healthy compounds and antioxidants that have some surprising benefits. Previous studies have shown that it can considerably lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes and liver disease. It keeps you alert and also helps you focus.

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To learn more about how good or not coffee is and how it affects your brain, researchers used data from the Longitudinal Study on Aging (ILSA) in Italy and made some interesting discoveries.

The study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease aimed to estimate the association between change or constant habits in coffee consumption and the incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI is basically an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Researchers evaluated 1,445 individuals aged 65-84 years over a 3 and a half year period.

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They found that modifying your habit by increasing coffee consumption over time may increase risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). According to Francesco Panza from the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy, one of the researchers, "These findings from the Italian Longitudinal Study on Ageing suggested that cognitively normal older individuals who never or rarely consumed coffee and those who increased their coffee consumption habits had a higher risk of developing MCI."

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He added, "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."

An interesting finding in this study was that cognitively normal older individuals who modified their habits by increasing with time their amount of coffee consumption ( more than a cup of coffee/day) had about two times higher rate of MCI compared to those with reduced habits (less than a cup of coffee/day).

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They also had about one and a half time higher rate of MCI in comparison with those with constant habits (neither more nor less than one cup of coffee/day).  Moreover, those who habitually consumed a moderate amount of coffee (one or two cups of coffee/day) had a reduced rate of the incidence of MCI than those who habitually never or rarely consumed coffee.

With inputs from IANS