Coffee & Tea Drinkers May Reduce Dementia Risk

Coffee and tea use may be associated with a lower risk of acquiring dementia, according to the findings of a recent study that studied the possibility of such a reduction.

Researchers at Ningxia Medical University in China have shown that those who consume various beverages, such as coffee or tea, have a reduced likelihood of developing dementia.

Their observational study, on the other hand, discovered that those with high blood pressure who consumed a particular quantity of cups on a daily basis were more likely to experience the benefits. It appeared that the kind of coffee that they drank was equally significant.

The findings are derived from the analysis of the health information of over 450,000 individuals who participated in the UK Biobank and were monitored for an average of 15 years. A diagnosis of hypertension, sometimes known as high blood pressure, was made for around half of the population.

In comparison to individuals who had the highest risk of acquiring dementia, those who drank six or more cups of coffee every day had the lowest risk of developing any kind of dementia. Coffee drinkers with high blood pressure who reported consuming one-half to one cup of coffee per day had the lowest risk.

On the other hand, tea drinkers with hypertension who consumed four to five cups of tea per day had the lowest risk of acquiring dementia caused by any cause, in comparison to those who had the highest risk, including those who did not consume any tea at all.

Bo Wang, a medical expert, and his colleagues decided to investigate participants who had high blood pressure since it is believed that high blood pressure has the potential to hasten the process of cognitive aging and to raise the risk of dementia.

“In the present research, people who had hypertension had a higher likelihood of developing dementia when compared to the population without hypertension,” the researchers write in their report.

“The statistically significant relationship connecting coffee and tea drinking and the risk of dementia was more likely to be found in people with hypertension than in individuals without hypertension.”

It is estimated by some researchers that the number of cases of dementia may be reduced by as much as forty-five percent if modifiable risk factors such as hypertension were managed.

The consumption of coffee and tea, which are two of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, might be one strategy to accomplish this goal. However, the latest studies indicate that dosage is really important.

Since the research is solely based on a correlation, additional studies are required to investigate the possible impacts that coffee or tea may have on the brain, regardless of whether those effects are positive or negative.

The most recent findings, on the other hand, assist to clarify some contradictory findings from earlier observational research, which did not take into account the type of coffee or tea that was drunk.

For example, the consumption of ground coffee, as opposed to decaffeinated coffee, was found to be related with the lowest incidence of dementia caused by general causes.

“The logical explanation for this is that various kinds of coffee have various amounts of caffeine, with ground coffee having the most caffeine material, instant coffee the second highest, and decaffeinated coffee the lowest,” according to the research authors.

Caffeinated beverages have been proven to lessen the risk of hypertension, reduce inflammation, and preserve the blood-brain barrier, which protects the central nervous system from toxins and infections. Although there are very few clinical studies on the topic, there have been some cell and animal studies that have found this to be the case.

Coffee and tea both contain bioactive chemicals that are comparable to one another and have the potential to have anti-inflammatory or antioxidant effects. Furthermore, these beverages have been associated with a reduced risk of cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes or hypertension, which may, in turn, reduce the likelihood of dementia developing in the future.

“These advantages may slow down the progression of vascular inflammation, blood-brain barrier leakage, and beta-amyloid microvascular accumulation in hypertensive patients, potentially delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease,” according to the hypothesis put out by the UK Biobank researchers.

Despite the fact that there are still a lot of questions that need to be solved, coffee and tea are starting to garner a substantial amount of interest from neurologists.

Nature Reports was the publication that featured the work.