Anecdotally, on a Sunday morning with 8 hours of sleep and no plans, I'm still going to caffeinate at least once, probably with breakfast. If I'm trying to stay up a long time or am sleep deprived I may caffeinate 2 or 3 times that day. I don't typically take a whole day off of caffeine based on my plans. If I have a doctor's appointment and am not supposed to eat/drink, I'll still do it later when I get back home.
Historically, you'd get your polyphenols from your garden or wild gathering. But we know that industrial crops (even organic grown) have extremely low polyphenol content compared to their wild counterparts. So coffee remains as one of the few strong sources you can buy in a grocery store.
Hypothesis: Polyphenols from other sources would be just as protective as coffee.
Hypothesis 1: Polyphenols
Hypothesis 2: 2-3 coffees a day is a symptom of a normal life
You get that kind of issue coming up a lot in this sort of research. Like people who don't drink at all are probably more likely to drop dead in the next year than moderate drinkers. Not because drink protects but because people critically ill tend not to drink.
There are also studies that nicotine lowers dementia risk.
Since caffeine and nicotine are both stimulants related to similar receptors, I wouldn't discount this other mechanism.
I'm not saying anything about general healthiness of caffeine though.
It has been found to be negatively correlated with Parkinson's disease also.
Does it not adversely affect cardiovascular health ? Even if it did, I would prefer keeping my mind and mobility.
So I am hoping there are confounding factors in all these studies, such that it's not coffee per se that helps with dementia but rather something along the lines of "the type of person who desires coffee is less likely to develop dementia".
It's probably brought on by something found indoors in most places. It's not seasonal, it's everyday. I have allergies no matter where I am (my home, some hotel, other people's homes, in my home province, in other provinces, in other countries).
Obviously there are many types of allergies and who knows if it works for you.. but worth a shot.
https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/newsroom/press-r...
“We also compared people with different genetic predispositions to developing dementia and saw the same results—meaning coffee or caffeine is likely equally beneficial for people with high and low genetic risk of developing dementia,” said lead author Yu Zhang
That seems like it indicates there is some real, independent signal here. Off to make some coffee!
1. Why did they source men and women from separate studies?
2. How can they tell the study's results aren't equivalent to "people with dementia are bad at logging their caffeine intake reliably"?
Ever since I stopped drinking that mini-panic-attack potion, my heart hasn’t skipped a beat, my sleep has been great and I don’t feel tired all the time.
Hopefully one day people wake up (haha) and dump it the way we’ve dumped cigarettes.
All things in moderation; I drink a cup or two a day, but only before lunch, never after, and I eat beforehand.
If I don't eat, or I have too many coffees together, I get the anxiety you mention.
If I have coffee after lunch, it affects my sleep.
But, accounting for those things and mitigating them, I now not only get the benefit of coffee (if there is one), I get the social benefit of having coffee with people.
Alertness isn't the same thing as energy, which is why people who drink a lot of coffee often feel tired but "wired". The brain is alert but energy is low. Abstaining from coffee can "reset" the nervous system to an extent, but alertness and energy is largely determined by insulin levs in the body. So figuring out what works for you with diet is a much better way of getting more stable energy through the day, regardless of caffeine intake.
- According to the funding and disclosure sections of the article, the research was primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
and then
- The Nurses’ Health Study (NHS): Supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
- The Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS): Supported by grants from the NCI and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
- Specific Grants: Additional funding for the analysis of cognitive decline and dementia outcomes often comes from the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
All the coffee I drink was freeze dried several years ago before prices went up.
