A new long-term study found that drinking one to three cups of coffee per day may be the sweet spot for older adults seeking to prevent cognitive decline.
Published July 21 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the longitudinal prospective cohort study followed more than 8,700 dementia-free adults aged 60 to 85.2 over a period of just over nine years, using data from the UK Biobank cohort.
After placing study participants into three groups based on daily coffee and tea consumption habits — never, moderate (1-3 cups) or high (4 or more cups) — researchers tracked cognitive performance using several tests of memory, reasoning and reaction time.
The most consistent finding was that people who drank a moderate amount of coffee, or a moderate or high amount of tea, experienced a slower decline in a specific type of reasoning ability known as fluid intelligence, which tends to diminish with age.
People who drank 4 or more cups of coffee experienced the greatest decline in fluid intelligence, according to the Australia-based research team.
Interestingly, tea drinkers started off with slightly lower fluid intelligence scores at baseline, but their decline over time was slower — suggesting a potential protective effect.
The study reinforces the overall findings of another major study of more than 6,000 older adults led by researchers in China. That study found that coffee drinkers were about 38% less likely to develop dementia within the seven-year study period. Additionally, higher tea consumption was also associated with reduced cognitive decline incidence.
More broadly speaking, the good health news for older adults who like drinking coffee continues to pile up. Coffee has been recently linked to: reduced dementia risk in patients with atrial fibrillation; reduced stroke and dementia risk; improved overall health among older women; an average increase in “healthspan” of two years; and reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
Related Posts
