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."

5 Reasons You Should Be Taking Fish Oil

Turns out the cardiovascular benefits of fish oil may just be a fisherman’s tale after all. According to the New York Times, at least two dozen studies of fish oil were published in leading medical journals from 2005 to 2012, nearly all of which focused on the pill’s ability to prevent cardiovascular events. All but two found fish oil had no benefit to heart health. (Find out more about what you should now about heart health).

However, fish oil is now the third most widely used dietary supplement in the United States—about 10 percent of Americans take the pill believing the omega-3 fatty acids will bolster their heart health—according to the National Institutes of Health. So, should we just flush ‘em down the drain? Of course not. Just because fish oil may not live up to the touted heart health benefits, doesn't mean there aren't other reasons to take them. You can also get the omega-3's in these foods if supplements aren't your thing. To prove it, here are five other ways you can benefit from fish oil.

BOOST MEMORY

18- to 25-year-olds who consumed fish oil pills every day for six months boosted their working memory by 23 percent, according to research published in the journal PLoS ONE.

IMPROVE MODERATE TO SEVERE ACNE

A 2012 study from California State Polytechnic University Pomona found evidence that fish oil can improve the severity of acne. Participants supplemented their normal acne-fighting regimen and typical diets with 3 grams of fish oil per day. After 12 weeks, the acne symptoms had greatly improved for 60 percent of the volunteers.

BOOST EYE HEALTH

A 2009 study from the National Eye Institute found that participants who reported the highest level of omega-3 fatty acids in their diet were 30 percent less likely than their peers to develop macular degeneration during a 12-year period.

HELP MUSCLE GROWTH

A 2013 study from the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology found that fish oil can improve the anabolic effect of exercise by promoting more lean muscle growth, function and quality.

REDUCE IMPACT OF AIR POLLUTION

A 2012 study suggests fish oil can help protect your heart against air pollution—good news for city dwellers, and great news for city dwellers who run on highly-polluted streets. Researchers gave 29 middle-aged adults three grams of fish oil or olive oil every day for four weeks. Then they exposed them to two consecutive hours of unclean air, after which their cardiac responses were measured. The participants who were given fish oil didn’t experience as negative an effect to their white blood cell activity. The fish oil protected the participants against the harmful cardiac effects associated with air pollution exposure.

It may not boost your heart health, but the supplement does yield benefits for your brain, lungs, skin, and muscles.