![\"Coffee](\"https:\/\/healthtrekker.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/pourover-cafe.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nPhoto: Karl Fredrickson, Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Every once in awhile, you can run into a happy accident. <\/p>\n Some things people do might seem random, senseless, or just following a crowd. <\/p>\n But what if there\u2019s actually a good reason; a method to the madness? <\/p>\n There just might be when it comes to some of the food & drink we have. <\/p>\n -Especially the stuff with the weird histories.<\/p>\n And Harvard, Mass General, and MIT teams set-out to find if there was any method behind the world\u2019s most popular drink that is not spelled, \u201calcohol\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n Read on to find out the details\u2026<\/p>\n So lots of what we eat and drink comes with good reasons. <\/p>\n Sodium cures food so it can last longer, helps your hormones, and makes your muscles work better. <\/p>\n Same with sugar to an extent. In the stone-age world, it meant eating fruit and not dying from scurvy. <\/p>\n Almost all the herbs & spices we put in salamis and other foods kill bacteria.<\/p>\n But what about coffee<\/a>?<\/p>\n So in a study that is truly, \u201cNo Small-Boy Stuff\u201d, Harvard docs and their pals gathered data on 130,000+ subjects.<\/p>\n The biggest study on coffee and caffeinated drinks of any kind in history. <\/p>\n It also lasted up to 43 years for some. So almost certainly one of the longest, too.<\/p>\n And for all that data, subjects who drank the most coffee had lower rates of Dementia<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n 18% lower!<\/strong><\/p>\n -BOOM!<\/p>\n But wait, it gets better. They actually found a reasonable cut-off, too. <\/p>\n The average consumption that produced results was only 2-3 cups per day<\/strong>. <\/p>\n And somehow counterintuitively for tea-drinkers, they only needed 1-2 cups per day. <\/p>\n So weirdly-enough, more caffeine did not yield better results. <\/p>\n Those subjects meeting at-least the minimum caffeine-intake also had lower subjective cognitive-decline. <\/p>\n And they also actually performed better<\/em> on cognitive tests, so there\u2019s more data right there!<\/p>\n Now while there is more (amazing) good news, <\/p>\n Like the fact that the reduction in Dementia rates held even if someone had the APOE4 genes that put them at risk for it<\/strong>,<\/p>\n There is also some bad news as well. <\/p>\n Like the fact that there was no reduction in Dementia rates for people who drank Decaf<\/em>! (tea<\/a> or coffee)<\/p>\n Also, more than 2-3 cups of coffee did not improve the effect. <\/p>\n So the body may have some limit on how much caffeine it can process in a way that\u2019s helpful to you. <\/p>\n As a matter of fact, if you\u2019re older your liver absolutely will process it slower.<\/p>\n Also, if you have too much caffeine, especially within 8 hours of bedtime (because that\u2019s the half-life), <\/p>\n You may end-up canceling-out the cognitive-benefits by fragmenting or wrecking your sleep. <\/p>\n For those who want a specific number, since 1 8oz. cup of coffee has about 95mg of caffeine, <\/p>\n That equates to somewhere between 190-285mg of caffeine\/day<\/strong> being the sweet-spot in order to get all the benefits.<\/p>\n And here is the part where things get a little weird, and why you might<\/em> not want to just grab a RedBull. <\/p>\n For some reason Tea-drinkers needed even less than coffee drinkers to get basically the same results in all testing-categories. <\/p>\n But wait! One 8oz. cup of Black Tea has about 47mg of caffeine and Green Tea has 30-50!<\/p>\n So how can it be that it took less tea to get the same benefits as coffee? <\/p>\n Well, anyone who\u2019s been to HT would know. <\/p>\n There are probably a lot more things going on than just<\/em> the caffeine, no matter how hard the Harvard study wants to index on it.<\/p>\n Probably beneficial plant-compounds like polyphenols and flavonoids<\/a>. <\/p>\n As a matter-of-fact, (brace yourself) there may be a LOT MORE than just<\/em> caffeine that gets removed from the coffee during the decaffeination process. <\/p>\n For example, there are 2200 natural compounds in coffee, and 100+ of them actually affect you. <\/p>\n Tea is similar at ~3000, and up to 100s of them cause effects in some way. <\/p>\n So if there are a ton of those listed in The Flavonoids Superpost<\/a>, <\/p>\n Then maybe those are what the decaf-drinkers are missing out on<\/em>?<\/p>\n Not only that, but both regular tea & coffee have compounds in them that reduce brain-inflammation. <\/p>\n -So maybe that\u2019s another angle entirely. Perhaps similar to the way ultraprocessed-foods are linked with both inflammation and detrimental cognitive impacts<\/a>. <\/p>\n And great news for people who like different kinds of tea. Well, at least a few. <\/p>\n The researchers found no distinction between the positive effects of tea<\/a> being down to black tea or green.<\/p>\n But by contrast, not only were Decaf drinkers less fortunate than regular-drinkers, they also got worse with dosage. <\/p>\n The ones who reported being heavy decaf drinkers actually had worse memory problems, cognitive test-results, and Dementia outcomes than people who just drank a light amount. <\/p>\n Researchers are not sure why, but there can be a Vicious-Cycle effect that explains it. <\/p>\n Some people could have physical or mental issues that seem aggravated with coffee consumption, so they switch to decaf. <\/p>\n ->However quite-weirdly, these conditions are actually pro-Dementia and no longer staved-off by the consumption of caffeinated tea or coffee.<\/p>\n Interestingly enough, unlike just about every \u201cextracted cell\u201d study in Health research history, <\/p>\n Caffeine actually does reduce inflammation<\/a>; including the stuff in your brain. <\/p>\n So since inflammation can damage things if it hangs-out long enough. <\/p>\n If it gets into the brain, it can damage your brain-cells over time<\/a>. <\/p>\n ->And that means? Cognitive decline.<\/p>\n So even if it gives you the jitters and you have to space it out with food, water, or box-breathing,<\/p>\n You probably want to get your hot drinks in their standard, caffeinated forms. <\/p>\n Because there is certainly wisdom in reducing the level of processing you get in your foods<\/a>.<\/p>\n And that holds-true even with coffee and tea<\/em>!<\/p>\n It might be a good idea to trust the wisdom of people experimenting with food & drink for a few hundred or thousand years,<\/p>\n And not just dismiss them as crazy goat-herders. <\/p>\n -Even the godfather of all Health & Wellness said to let your food be your medicine!<\/p>\n OL\u00c9, CAF\u00c9!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Source: Harvard<\/a> Photo: Karl Fredrickson, Unsplash Does The Accidental Awesome Of Ancient Biochem Work On Brains?: Every once in awhile, you can run into a happy accident. Some things people do might seem random, senseless, or just following a crowd. But what if there\u2019s actually a good reason; a method to the madness? There just might be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7055753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218225,12115,128452,113016,11985],"tags":[155515,10696,5233,218226,30601,16371,26454,1638],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7055751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alzheimer","category-coffee","category-dementia","category-mind-brain","category-tea","tag-alzheimer","tag-brain","tag-coffee","tag-cupsday","tag-dementia","tag-prevent","tag-rot","tag-tea"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes The Accidental Awesome Of Ancient Biochem Work On Brains?:<\/h2>\n
The Short Answer:<\/h2>\n
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\u2022 Source Study: JAMA Investigation \u2013 Coffee and Tea Intake, Dementia Risk, and Cognitive Function<\/a>![\"coffee](\"https:\/\/healthtrekker.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/pourover-cafe-pt.jpg\")
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