Three coffees a day keeps dementia at bay
A daily routine of three to five cups of coffee a day in the middle stages of life could reduce the risk of late-life dementia, according to a new study from Finland and Sweden.
Published in the latest issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the long-term research project tracked more than 1,400 older participants over an average period of 21 years.
The participants were drawn from a number of Scandinavian population-based surveys conducted in the 1970s and 1980s, and were followed up in 1998.
From the 1,400 survey participants, 61 cases of dementia were identified in the final examination.
The researchers found that the participants who had been regular coffee drinkers at midlife had a lower risk of developing dementia in later life, when compared with those who drank little or no coffee.
People who drank three to five cups of coffee were 65% less likely to experience late-life dementia than the non-coffee drinkers.
While previous research had identified that caffeine stimulates the central nervous system over short periods of time, there was little conclusive evidence about its long-term impact on cognitive ability before this study. The researchers behind the project now hope their findings will inform the search for a cure to dementia.
