Love your morning Joe? It may help reduce your risk of dementia, stroke
Rushing around with holiday preparations might leave you feeling exhausted. Reaching for another mug of coffee, you wonder if it’s OK to have the extra cup.
The research on coffee has gone back and forth but the majority of studies reveal coffee’s health benefits. For full disclosure, I am a coffee drinker. This study was published November 2021 in Plos Medicine.
This was a prospective cohort study. This type of study follows a group of people over time, differing with certain factors under study to determine how these factors affect outcome. In this study, coffee and tea consumption were the factors. Important to remember this type of study shows an association, not cause and effect.
This prospective cohort study included 365,682 participants (50-74 years old) from the UK Biobank. Being investigated was an association between coffee and tea consumption with stroke and dementia. Factors that can also influence health such as weight, diet and smoking were controlled.
During an 11.4-year follow-up, 5,079 subjects developed dementia and 10,053 participants had a stroke. The researchers found that coffee intake of 2-3 cups a day or tea intake of 3-5 cups a day, or their combined intake of 4-6 cups a day, were linked with the lowest risk of dementia and stroke.
I would not make a global recommendation to drink 4-6 cups of coffee to lower dementia risk, but I will assure clients that coffee is fine to drink and probably has added health benefits.
Some people have coffee/caffeine sensitivity. They feel jittery after drinking coffee or have trouble sleeping if they have a late afternoon cup. Other people experience indigestion, rapid heartbeat or even a rise in blood pressure.
A 2012 study in Sleep showed that many people with caffeine sensitivity have a variation in their ADORA2A gene. If you have any negative feelings from coffee, don’t drink it. But for those who like me love their morning cup, then bottoms up.
Sheah Rarback MS, RDN is a registered dietitian nutrition in private practice in Miami.
