Caffeine And Healthy Diet May Boost Memory, Thinking Skills

A study published in this month’s Journal of Nutrition is any indication, the caffeine in coffee might offer not just a momentary mental boost but also longer-term effects on thinking skills. Having an alcoholic drink a day might also benefit our mental performance, but the line between just right and too much is uncertain. An even better strategy for maintaining memory and thinking skills with age may be to eat a healthy diet.

In the study, researchers from the National Institute on Aging compared scores on various tests of thinking skills and memory with caffeine, alcohol, and nutrient intake in 727 men and women taking part in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Over all, participants who ranked high on the healthy diet scale did better on 10 tests of memory than those with lower diet scores. The same held true for those who took in more caffeine. The effects for moderate alcohol drinking were mixed.

The caffeine-brain connection

The reason you get a quick wakeup call after chugging a mug of coffee has to do with the way caffeine tricks your brain. Not only is caffeine a brain stimulant, but it also blocks receptors for a chemical called adenosine, which normally prevents the release of excitatory brain chemicals. With adenosine out of the way, these brain-sparking chemicals can flow more freely—giving you a surge of energy and potentially improving mental performance and slowing age-related mental decline.

The Journal of Nutrition study isn’t the last word on the subject of caffeine and memory. It showed that people—particularly those who were ages 70 and over—who took in more caffeine scored better on tests of mental function, but not on memory tests or other measures of mental ability.

Some previous studies have shown improved long-term memory performance and thinking ability in regular caffeine consumers; others haven’t shown any connection.

Drink to your cognitive health?

When it comes to alcohol, its effects on memory and thinking skills may depend on how they are measured and how much you’re drinking. In this study, moderate alcohol use appeared to improve working memory and attention—especially in women and in those ages 70 and over. But those benefits could come at the expense of declines in skills like executive function and global thinking.

Excessive drinking, defined as more than two drinks a day for men or more than one a day for women, is known to harm the brain. Over time, excessive drinking can cause everything from short-term memory lapses to more permanent problems. Any benefits from alcohol seen in theJournal of Nutrition study came from moderate drinking.

Better memory through diet

The study also looked at the connection between diet and mental performance. People who ate foods with plenty of healthful nutrients had better attention and memory than participant with poorer diets. A healthy diet was also linked to good thinking skills in women and participants under age 70. In particular, foods that are part of the Mediterranean diet—fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, olive oil, and whole grains—show promise for preserving memory and preventing Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

A recipe for maintaining memory

This study is just one of many linking healthy eating habits with maintaining memory and thinking skills into old age. Continuing a healthy diet, or switching to one, makes sense on many levels. It probably is good for your brain, and it’s definitely good for your heart, bones, muscles, and overall health.

As for caffeine? There’s no evidence yet that you need to start drinking coffee or tea to protect your brain. If you like drinking caffeinated beverages, enjoy them. But keep in mind that adding lots of sugar or cream, or getting caffeine via sugar-sweetened soda, may counter any benefits.

What about alcohol? If you enjoy drinking alcohol, keep it moderate—or less. As the researchers write, “alcohol has potentially deleterious effects over time with lower intake being a better choice than moderate intake.”

Caffeine Has Positive Effect On Memory

Whether it's a mug full of fresh-brewed coffee, a cup of hot tea, or a can of soda, consuming caffeine is the energy boost of choice for millions who want to wake up or stay up.

Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found another use for the popular stimulant: memory enhancer.

Michael Yassa, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins, and his team of scientists found that caffeine has a positive effect on our long-term memory. Their research, published by the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that caffeine enhances certain memories at least up to 24 hours after it is consumed.

"We've always known that caffeine has cognitive-enhancing effects, but its particular effects on strengthening memories and making them resistant to forgetting has never been examined in detail in humans," said Yassa, senior author of the paper. "We report for the first time a specific effect of caffeine on reducing forgetting over 24 hours."

The Johns Hopkins researchers conducted a double-blind trial in which participants who did not regularly eat or drink caffeinated products received either a placebo or a 200-milligram caffeine tablet five minutes after studying a series of images. Salivary samples were taken from the participants before they took the tablets to measure their caffeine levels. Samples were taken again one, three, and 24 hours afterwards.

The next day, both groups were tested on their ability to recognize images from the previous day's study session. On the test, some of the visuals were the same as those from the day before, some were new additions, and some were similar but not the same.

More members of the caffeine group were able to correctly identify the new images as "similar" to previously viewed images rather than erroneously citing them as the same.

The brain's ability to recognize the difference between two similar but not identical items, called pattern separation, reflects a deeper level of memory retention, the researchers said.

"If we used a standard recognition memory task without these tricky similar items, we would have found no effect of caffeine," Yassa said. "However, using these items requires the brain to make a more difficult discrimination—what we call pattern separation, which seems to be the process that is enhanced by caffeine in our case."

The memory center in the human brain is the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped area in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. The hippocampus is the switchbox for all short- and long-term memories. Most research done on memory—the effects of concussions in athletes, of war-related head injuries, and of dementia in the aging population—focuses on this area of the brain.

Until now, caffeine's effects on long-term memory had not been examined in detail. Of the few studies done, the general consensus was that caffeine has little or no effect on long-term memory retention.

The research is different from prior experiments because the subjects took the caffeine tablets only after they had viewed and attempted to memorize the images.

"Almost all prior studies administered caffeine before the study session, so if there is an enhancement, it's not clear if it's due to caffeine's effects on attention, vigilance, focus, or other factors," Yassa said. "By administering caffeine after the experiment, we rule out all of these effects and make sure that if there is an enhancement, it's due to memory and nothing else."

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 90 percent of people worldwide consume caffeine in one form or another. In the United States, 80 percent of adults consume caffeine every day. The average adult has an intake of about 200 milligrams—the same amount used in the Yassa study—or roughly one cup of strong coffee per day.

Yassa's team completed the research at Johns Hopkins before his lab moved to the University of California, Irvine, at the start of this year.

"The next step for us is to figure out the brain mechanisms underlying this enhancement," Yassa said. "We can use brain-imaging techniques to address these questions. We also know that caffeine is associated with healthy longevity and may have some protective effects from cognitive decline like Alzheimer's disease. These are certainly important questions for the future."

Health Benefits Of Caffeine

A cup of coffee in the morning may pack more than just an energy boost.
More and more research is emerging to suggest that there may be several health benefits associated with drinking this dark black beverage, from helping prevent diabetes to lowering the risk of liver disease.

In 17th century England the popularity of the drink gave rise to a number of coffee houses which were dubbed 'penny universities', because with one penny a person could buy a cup of coffee and have intellectually stimulating conversations with other people.1

Nowadays, with over 400 billion cups consumed every year, coffee is one of the world's most popular drinks. But what makes it special?

Nutritional breakdown of coffee

Calorie count

Regular black coffee (without milk or cream) has a very low calorie count. A typical cup of black coffee only contains around 2 calories.

However, if you add sugar and milk, the calorie count can shoot up.


Antioxidants
Coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the U.S., according to researchers at the University of Scranton.
Joe Vinson, Ph.D., lead author of the study, said that "Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source. Nothing else comes close.
The authors of the study emphasize moderation, stating that only one or two cups a day appear to be beneficial.
Caffeinated and decaffeinated versions provided nearly the same levels of antioxidants.

Health benefits of coffee

The potential health benefits associated with drinking coffee include: protecting against type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, liver disease, liver cancer, and promoting a healthy heart.3

Coffee may protect against type 2 diabetes

Coffee may be protective against type 2 diabetes. Researchers at UCLA identified that drinking coffee increases plasma levels of the protein sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). SHBG controls the biological activity of the body's sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) which play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.4

Dr. Simin Liu, one of the authors of the study, said that an "inverse association" exists between coffee consumption and risk for type 2 diabetes.

Increased coffee consumption may reduce risk of type 2 diabetes - the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers gathered data from three studies. In these studies, the diets of the participants were evaluated using questionnaires every 4 years, with participants who reported having type 2 diabetes filling out additional questionnaires. In total, 7,269 study participants had type 2 diabetes.

The researchers found that the participants who increased their coffee intake by more than one cup a day (on average, an increase of 1.69 cups per day) over a 4-year period had an 11% lower type 2 diabetes risk over the subsequent 4 years, compared with people who did not change their intake.

Coffee may help prevent Parkinson's disease

Researchers in the U.S. carried out a study that assessed the link between coffee consumption and Parkinson's disease risk. The authors of the study concluded that "higher coffee and caffeine intake is associated with a significantly lower incidence of Parkinson's disease".5

In addition, caffeine in coffee may help control movement in people suffering from Parkinson's, according to a study conducted at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) that was published in the journalNeurology.6

Coffee may lower the risk of liver cancer

Italian researchers found that coffee consumption lowers the risk of liver cancer by about 40%. In addition, some of the results suggest that if you drink three cups a day, the risks are reduced by more than 50%.7

The lead author of the study, Dr. Carlo La Vecchia, from Milan's Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, said "our research confirms past claims that coffee is good for your health and particularly the liver."

Coffee may help prevent liver disease

Regular consumption of coffee is linked to a reduced risk of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a rare autoimmune disease of the bile ducts in the liver.8
In addition, coffee consumption can lower the incidence of cirrhosis of the liver for alcohol drinkers by 22%, according to a study at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, California, USA.

The authors of the study concluded that the results "support the hypothesis that there is an ingredient in coffee that protects against cirrhosis, especially alcoholic cirrhosis."9

Research published in the journal Hepatology in April 2014, suggests that drinking coffee is linked to a decreased liver cirrhosis death risk. The researchers suggest that drinking two or more cups of coffee every day can reduce the risk of death from liver cirrhosis by 66%.16

A study published in the journal Hepatology indicates that drinking decaf coffee also lowers liver enzyme levels, suggesting the benefits are not linked to caffeine content.

Coffee may be good for the heart

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard School of Public Health, concluded thatdrinking coffee in moderation protects against heart failure. They defined 'in moderation' as 2 European cups (equivalent to two 8-ounce American servings) per day.10
People who drank four European cups on a daily basis had an 11% lower risk of heart failure, compared to those who did not.

The authors stressed that their results "did show a possible benefit, but like with so many other things we consume, it really depends on how much coffee you drink."