Coffee Could Ward Off Alzheimer's, Mouse Study Shows

If you're a coffee drinker, you might also be protecting your brain from Alzheimer's disease, a new study in mice suggests.

Something in coffee -- though researchers have yet to determine what exactly that "something" is -- interacts with caffeine, boosting levels of a growth factor called granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) that appears to fight off Alzheimer's disease in mice, according to the study that will be published next week in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Previous studies in humans have suggested that drinking coffee or another caffeinated beverage every day in middle and older age seems to decrease the risk of Alzheimer's disease. University of South Florida researchers, who conducted the new study, thought that it was the caffeine that had the beneficial effects.

But their new mouse study shows that it could also be something else in coffee that interacts with caffeine to protect the brain, since only caffeinated coffee -- not decaffeinated coffee, nor caffeine alone -- improved the mice's memory and increased GCSF levels, the study said. High blood levels of GCSF was also linked with better memory in the mice.

The human equivalent of four to five cups of coffee a day seemed to produce the beneficial brain effect, the study said. However, researchers only used "drip" coffee in the study, so it's unknown whether instant coffee has the same effects.

"Caffeinated coffee provides a natural increase in blood GCSF levels," study researcher Dr. Chuanhai Cao, a neuroscientist at the University of South Florida, said in a statement. "The exact way that this occurs is not understood. There is a synergistic interaction between caffeine and some mystery component of coffee that provides this beneficial increase in blood GCSF levels."

Researchers said GCSF likely has this effect because it causes stem cells in the bone marrow to come into the brain and remove the beta-amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. It also has a role in forming brain cell connections and creating new brain neurons, they said.

Coffee is known to have other beneficial health effects, including reducing prostate cancer risk, according to a study out of Harvard last month. It's also been shown to protect against Type 2 diabetes, liver cancer and Parkinson's disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Comments

[John Acree]

01:51 AM on 07/07/2011

Just don't drink coffee with anticholinergic drugs like antihistamines, Benadryl, dramamine. Those deplete the memory areas of the brain. Scopolamine is an anticholinergic that can even be hypnotic at certain doses. In fact, some use that drug to scam the elderly, then pass them off as Alzheimer's victims (the symptoms of this drug and early-stage Alzheimer's are the same). For more info, search on 'scopolamine' and 'island'.

[onionboy]

11:23 PM on 06/28/2011

I can't tell you the devastating sadness of watching your favorite mouse waste away. One day he's running his maze at top speed...soon he he's pausing at each intersection...eventually, he can't even remember where he's left his cheese.

I hope we see the end of mouse Alzheimer's in my lifetime.

[WilmaJune]

10:43 PM on 06/28/2011

This has to be another phony story. Every person I know who suffered with Alzheimer's were coffee drinkers. However, coffee puts me to sleep.

[butchcliff]

08:31 AM on 06/28/2011

Strange balance in how many cups a day one should drink. Most reports say 4 or 5 plus cups daily is not good for you. These mice were only drinking 4or5 daily so still safe for health. Doesnt just 1-3 have benefits? Know that first in the morning one seems to benefit me but would never reach 4 daily.

[Dean S6]

01:49 AM on 06/27/2011

Yea, yea... it also wards off "being awake" in people like me... Darker the blend the harder i sleep

[Jessica Mercedes]

06:29 PM on 06/26/2011

The article says that mice drank an equivilant of 4-5 human sized cups of coffee er day. If a person were to actually drink that much coffee in one day, they would seriously jacked up. People trying to get a benefit from coffee are really doing them self more harm than good. I'm assuming that the scientists who conducted this study are hoping to use this new information to create some type of pharmacuetical that can work to prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Side note: My dad drank at least 2 cups of strong, black, drip coffee every single day since he was in his 20s. He is now 69 and has aggressive Lewy Body Dementia - which is a cross between Parkinons and Alzheimers. Coffee did not help him.

[Holly Smoke]

10:49 PM on 06/26/2011

Try LSD ,It might help.

[Parkite]

07:15 AM on 06/27/2011

Sorry about your dad, but the research says 4 - 5 cups a day. Two cups a day is not enough. Also 4 or 5 cups a day doesn't necessarily jack one up on caffeine if you drink it over the course of the day.

[rwellsrwells]

11:40 AM on 06/26/2011

Are you a man or a mouse? Pass the whatchamacallit, would ya?

[SCboy]

11:23 AM on 06/26/2011

Excellent news. As soon as I remember the way to the kitchen, I am going to have another cup.

[pattileigh]

11:16 AM on 06/26/2011

As much as I love coffee and like to believe this, one day coffee is good next day it's bad and causes cancer. Depends whose doing the study.

[StephenJK]

10:01 AM on 06/26/2011

I'm so jacked on coffee right now. I brewed myself a half dozen bonus cups this morning. I'm on top of the world, ma!

[ArtsyJane]

09:53 AM on 06/26/2011

Coffee is definitely a brain stimulator- everyone who's used it extensively can attest to that fact first hand. What are the bio-chemical mechnisms of that and does it fight back Alzheimer's is another question, but it is certain that coffee has a huge bearing on the way the brain functions.

[ArtsyJane]

09:49 AM on 06/26/2011

Mmmyes. I've been a coffee addict for more of my life and I stopped drinking coffee overnight a few months ago. For years, decades even, I could not image getting up in the morning and starting my day without my cup of coffee. I was very surprised to see how quickly and easily I gave it up. Since I did give it up, I've been feeling slightly more sluggish and forgteful, especially about mindless details, overall not as dynamic. However, my skin looks ten times better, my hair too, I don't have gastric pains and I feel overall healthier.

I stopped coffee for a specific medical reason, where it was couter-indicated, but I think that later on, I will probably come back to it. I actually love coffee a lot.

[Treehuggindirtworshiper]

07:36 AM on 06/26/2011

Good to know. I stop just short of having a picc line inserted for an IV drip.

[ArtsyJane]

09:50 AM on 06/26/2011

Haha, I know that stage...

[ThinkCreeps]

02:15 AM on 06/26/2011

Much more interesting than the previous unsurprising results that caffeinatied old people do better in cognitive tests.

[MagicalPossibilities]

11:31 PM on 06/25/2011

Weren't they saying in another study recently that coffee causes cancer?
I have also read that nicotine can prevent Alzheimers and treat Parkinson's symptoms.

[rp2par]

08:22 AM on 06/26/2011

Tests have also shown that marijuana slows down the debillitting effects of Alzheimers.

[ArtsyJane]

09:42 AM on 06/26/2011

Unfortunately, marijuana has its own debilitating effects...

[StephenJK]

10:00 AM on 06/26/2011

Tests have also shown that Chuck Norris is awesomeness defined.