Drinking coffee has come under attack through out the years while linking it to health hazards such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Several of these past research findings are now being debunked. Recent studies may prove that coffee may aid in the defense against Alzheimer.
As with any thing, drinking coffee depends on the amount of intake and the personal nutritional habits themselves of the individual. New evidence shows that coffee may be a useful tool to noticeably reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or delay its onset.
It is important to understand that drinking coffee in moderation can help reduce the risk or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, however no research results have been produced that say drinking coffee can completely protect coffee lovers from getting Alzheimer's disease.
So what ingredients in coffee are proving to be so successful in these research studies?
Studies are now being performed to see if the caffeine in coffee can be a contributing factor. Through studies of people afflicted with Alzheimer's disease it has been found that a substance called GCSF (granulocyte colony stimulating factor) is one of the noted decreases in those suffering from the disease. Level of the GCSF substance have been introduced to mice being studied in the research and points to the belief that it improves memory in Alzheimer mice. GCSF seems to cause an increase in the blood levels of this substance. The caffeine found in coffee generates an increase of GCSF in the blood levels.
An Alzheimer’s Institute, USF Health Byrd , is investigating GCSF treatment in those patients with severe cases of Alzheimer and also those patients only displaying slight cognitive disabilities. It will be interesting to see what the results point to in this investigation.
The health benefits of coffee can be also seen with a research by Sweden and Finland performed in a 2009 with 1,400 participants, their results from a 20 year study determined that those participating in the studies and reported to drink 3 to 5 cups a day on a routine basis were less likely to develop Alzheimer and dementia by 65% compared to those that did not drink coffee or those that only drank it on occasion. It does appear that coffee may prove to be a proactive treatment to the protection of memory loss from the disease. The added benefit is coffee is that it is easily obtained because of the surplus available to the public and is relatively inexpensive for the majority of those that buy it.