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Researchers Say Caffeinated Coffee May Fight Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers have determined that caffeinated coffee fights Alzheimer's disease in mice.

Per the article:

Neither caffeine alone nor a decaf version of the beverage provided the same protection as caffeinated coffee. Researchers found that caffeine interacted with an unknown compound in coffee to increase blood levels of a growth factor called GCSF, which helps create neurons in the brain.

"We are not saying that daily moderate coffee consumption will completely protect people from getting Alzheimer's disease," said lead researcher Chuanhai Cao in a University of South Florida press release. "However, we do believe that moderate coffee consumption can appreciably reduce your risk of this dreaded disease or delay its onset."

Though results have been mixed about coffee's effects on human health, the research contributes to a growing body of evidence showing the beverage may not be that bad after all.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

http://news.discovery.com/human/coffee-may-ward-off-alzheimers.html

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-coffee-lethal-prostate-cancer...

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-coffee-diabetes.html

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/61362/title/Coffee_perks...

http://longevity.about.com/od/mentalfitness/a/coffee-dementia.htm

Tags: Alzheimer's, Caffeine, Coffee, Jubinsky

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on July 1, 2011 at 5:37pm

This is great news.
Peter J. D'Adamo N.D. says coffee is benificial for my blood group as well. So, I'll continue to take it.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on July 1, 2011 at 5:37pm

My blood group is A positive.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on July 1, 2011 at 5:38pm

1/2 of my siblings are A positive and the other 1/2 are O positive. D'Adamo says his studies indicate O blood group should avoid coffee. The reasons he sites in his books have to do with the strength of stomach acid already present in the O blood group and it's deficit in the A blood group.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on July 1, 2011 at 6:08pm

He also states coffee contains an agglutinin which while beneficial in A blood group there are components which can modify disease susceptibility in O group such that he lists coffee as an Avoid beverage for O blood group.
All naturopathic doctors do NOT agree on Dr. D'Adamo's findings. MD doctors have never heard of him. I think his research explains why my family members benefit from different menus!

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 2, 2011 at 4:40am

My blood group is O+ and I have been a heavy coffee drinker for nearly 60 years without consequence. Maybe I have been unnecessarily increasing my stomach acid but I think the benefits of coffee could stem from more than how much acid is in the stomach. I like to think so anyway because I am addicted to coffee. I have added some other articles about the benefits of coffee to the abstract.

Permalink Reply by Alice on July 1, 2011 at 11:27pm

That's interesting. I wonder how the benefits compare with the benefits of other things like lifestyle choices or other foods and drinks. Is it a significant medication? Or just a small factor of benefit?

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 2, 2011 at 3:57am

In that the study was done on mice other factors that might have influenced the outcome were pretty much ruled out.

Permalink Reply by Alice on July 2, 2011 at 6:09pm

How do they know which mice will get the disease of the brain? Also are mice very much like humans? Is the disease something that is caused by a virus? Or don't they know? Surely this would be relevant information when being able to predict if something had helped or not? Can they infect the mice with the disease? Or is this disease common in mice already?

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 3, 2011 at 7:10am

Per the article:

Since the mice in the experiment had been triggered to develop Alzheimer's symptoms, they were projected to show a decrease in the GCSF. But mice receiving coffee with caffeine showed higher levels of GCSF and performed better at working memory tests -- something not observed in the other groups.

i.e., the mice were divided into groups and the mice in only one of the groups were provided with caffeinated coffee in their diet. Then all of the groups were induced to develop Alzheimer's. The the mice in the group that had been provided caffeinated coffee were the only ones that did not develop it as severely. This means it was the caffeinated coffee that made the difference.

Mice are somewhat similar to people but of course are not actually people so testing needs to be done on people also in order confirm that the result applies to them. The testing will take longer for people because the researchers must wait for them to develop Alzheimer's naturally rather than induced them to develop it.

Permalink Reply by Alice on July 3, 2011 at 6:06pm

I didn't know you could bring Alzheimer's on - they must know how it is caused then? I didn't know that they knew what caused it? Interesting research - as coffee has such a bad press.

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 4, 2011 at 11:11am

They don't have the causes of Alzheimer's completely figured out but they have been finding genes (as many as ten now per the article below) that seem to be associated with it. There is one gene in particular called APOE that seems to be associated with the development of Alzheimer's. Per the article below:

By themselves, the genes are not nearly as important a factor as APOE, a gene discovered in 1995 that greatly increases risk for the disease: by 400 percent if a person inherits a copy from one parent, by 1,000 percent if from both parents.

My understanding is that they can genetically engineer mice to have the genes and, thereby, induce Alzheimer's symptoms in them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/health/04alzheimer.html

Permalink Reply by Alice on July 5, 2011 at 1:19am

I think that the gene research is interesting but I think the gene research at the moment is out of balance with other environmental causal factors - because even someone with all the gene's might not develop the disease - due to environmental factors. That's what the coffee is about - what triggers it.