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Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements for Seniors
Older Women Who Drink Three Cups of Coffee Daily
Protect Memory
Caffeine appears to reduce cognitive decline, but not
in men
 Aug. 7, 2007 – Women who have reached age 65 can
protect their thinking ability by taking a heavy dose of caffeine – as
in three cups of coffee a day. Even better news is the finding that this
power increases with age – the older the women, the memory loss is less.
The bad news is the study found it does not work for men.
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The study published in the August 7, 2007, issue of
Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology,
found that women age 65 and older who drank more than three cups of
coffee (or the equivalent in tea) per day had less decline over time on
tests of memory than women who drank one cup or less of coffee or tea
per day.
The results held up even after researchers adjusted
for other factors that could affect memory abilities, such as age,
education, disability, depression, high blood pressure, medications,
cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses.
“Caffeine is a psychostimulant which appears to
reduce cognitive decline in women,” said study author Karen Ritchie,
PhD, of INSERM, the French National Institute for Health and Medical
Research, in Montpellier, France.
“While we have some ideas as to how this works
biologically, we need to have a better understanding of how caffeine
affects the brain before we can start promoting caffeine intake as a way
to reduce cognitive decline. But the results are interesting – caffeine
use is already widespread and it has fewer side effects than other
treatments for cognitive decline, and it requires a relatively small
amount for a beneficial effect.”
The study involved 7,000 men and women whose
cognitive abilities and caffeine consumption were evaluated over four
years.
Compared to women who drank one cup or less of
coffee per day, those who drank over three cups were less likely to show
as much decline in memory.
Moreover, the benefits increased with age – coffee
drinkers being 30 percent less likely to have memory decline at age 65
and rising to 70 percent less likely over age 80.
Caffeine consumers did not seem to have lower rates
of dementia. “We really need a longer study to look at whether caffeine
prevents dementia; it might be that caffeine could slow the dementia
process rather than preventing it,” said Ritchie.
Ritchie said researchers aren’t sure why caffeine
didn’t show the same result in men.
“Women may be more sensitive to the effects of
caffeine,” she said. “Their bodies may react differently to the
stimulant, or they may metabolize caffeine differently.”
The American Academy of Neurology, an association
of more than 20,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is
dedicated to improving patient care through education and research. A
neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing,
treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as
stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple
sclerosis. For more information about the American Academy of Neurology,
visit
www.aan.com.
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