Monday, January 26, 2009

Really, really good news... about coffee

Coffee Today Keeps Dementia Away

The photo is Professor Brad Delong, who puts his thoughts about economics on YouTube under the title Brad Delong's Morning Coffee

The following comes from his blog:

"MedHeadlines:

Coffee Today Keeps Dementia Away: A collaborative team of researchers from Sweden and Denmark enrolled 2,000 adults in the study 21 years ago. Participants self-reported their dietary habits, including their daily coffee consumption. After over two decades, more than 70% of the participants could be tracked for follow-up evaluations. That the research team could find 1,409 now-middle-aged participants out of the original 2,000 is considered an unusually high number.

During those 21 years, 61 people developed dementia. Of those 61, 48 developed Alzheimer’s disease.

After evaluating the effects of many health and socioeconomic factors, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol counts, the research team concluded the participants who drank between three and five cups of coffee a day were 65% less likely to develop dementia than those who drank less. Drinking even more than five cups a day was also associated with a reduced risk of developing dementia but the number of participants drinking this much coffee was too small to be statistically significant.

While not advocating someone start drinking coffee as a preventive measure, Dr. Miia Kivipelto...


Why not?!"