Does Delightful, Delicious Coffee Help Prevent Dementia?

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At some point we all seem to come to love coffee, especially here in the West.

But the question, ultimately is coffee good for you, still leads to some debate.

While so many agree on how delightful it is, many are conflicted as to whether or not the results of consuming its caffeine, which leads to addiction and loss of energy and headaches without it, outweighs the potential health benefits of coffee.

Coffee is delightful. Coffee is delicious.

And coffee is a drug.

But hey, it’s our favorite drug, so let’s justify our consumption and move forward, shall we?

In all seriousness, there are numerous potential health benefits of coffee consumption, not the least of which is its high antioxidant content, so we should not be swayed by any negative connotations of the word “drug”, which we will not get into here.

Benefits of Coffee Consumption and Dementia Risk?

The question posed today is, could more coffee consumption help prevent dementia, possibly one of the worst scourges of aging and a devastating loss to not only the sufferer but their entire network of family, friends, and loved ones.

If there is anything we can do, especially naturally, to help prevent dementia from occurring, it is never too early to start looking into it.

To that end, an extremely helpful study out of Japan was just published that gives us insight into whether or not the benefits of coffee can include preventing the devastating disease dementia.

Published in October 2021 in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the researchers published their findings of an eight-year cohort study that looked into whether or not coffee, green tea, or caffeine could be associated with incidence of dementia in middle-aged and older people.

Should Coffee Lovers Get Ready to Rejoice?

The researchers found very positive associations, for all three: coffee, green tea, and caffeine.

But coffee takes the cake.

They found that, among the study participants, those who drank 2 – 2.9 cups of coffee per day had a 0.69 hazard ratio (HR) compared to the lowest consumption of coffee, or approximately 31 percent lower risk of incident dementia.

Even better for coffee lovers? Those who drank 3 or more cups of coffee a day had a 0.53 HR, or approximately 47 percent lower risk of incident dementia compared to the lowest coffee consumption group.

If Coffee is Good for You , is Green Tea Better?

What about green tea, though?

Green tea is also a superpowered health food, with very high antioxidant content and numerous other benefits, some of which you can check out here.

When it comes to this study and its association with dementia incidence, however, it didn’t show nearly as much impact as its caffeinated friend coffee.

The only age group in which the association between reduced dementia risk and green tea consumption was in the 60-69 age group.

So, while it did not show the same robust benefits of coffee, it is still a superfood of the highest order in its own right and may still need to have a big part to play in your daily diet.

A Coffee Caveat: Coffee, Dementia, and the Battle of the Sexes

There is obviously a ton of good news coming out of this study, however there is a little bit of cold water to throw on the delicious hot coffee.

The positive associations of coffee and reduced risk of dementia were significant in men only, not in women.

Not only that, the hazard ratio of coffee consumption in women actually went up as coffee consumption increased, resulting in an association with an increased risk of incident dementia, to the tune of a hazard ratio of 1.16 in the highest consumption group, when adjusted for factors such as marital status, occupation, BMI, total physical activity, smoking, drinking, and more . You can see their results in chart form here.

Interestingly, though, although the HR went up as coffee consumption increased, the actual rate of dementia incidence in fact decreased, as you can see on the chart.

It may be confusing as to how those two things can be true at the same time. Perhaps it has something to do with the adjusting of the aforementioned lifestyle factors. It is possible that those who adhere to healthier lifestyles have better outcomes, but that is only a guess as the data presented does not say so specifically.

Coffee: Yay, Nay, or Maybay?

While the data is extremely positive for men, it is very curious as to why the results were so different for women. Further studies and analysis will be very helpful to understand why.

The good news is the incidence rate was lowest for both genders in the groups that consumed the most coffee, so perhaps there is some even brighter news ahead for all the coffee-loving ladies out there, but we need more information to understand what is really going on there.

Further studies will be very helpful to either replicate these results or shed more light on the potential health benefits of coffee. Especially studies that include people from more backgrounds to get an even better idea of the potential impact coffee consumption can have on the risk of dementia.

In the meantime, there is some real good food for thought here as well as for discussion with your doctor to see if coffee might be good for you specifically.

As always, always talk to your doctor to see what is right for you. This information is presented for informational purposes only and the same foods and/or health strategies may not be right for everyone. So have a conversation with your doctor and figure out the best plan for you.

Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34624929/

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