Indulge Your Need for Caffeine and Protect Your Brain

As if we all needed more excuses to enjoy our favourite hot beverage as Winter grips the Northern Hemisphere (all you Southern Hemisphere folk can just continue enjoying the sunshine), new research has emerged linking tea and coffee consumption to lower risk of dementia and stroke.

The research comes from Tianjin Medical University in China, and involved 365,682 participants who were observed over a number of years in a comprehensive study.

Let’s take a look at the finer details, shall we?

Details of the Study

Participants were required to self-report their intake of tea or coffee throughout the course of the project. The participants were recruited from the UK Biobank, a bank of people representing a typically healthy sample relative to the general population. Participants ranged between the ages of 50 and 74, and throughout the study 10,053 and 5,076 participants experienced a stroke or dementia respectively

Results of the Tea and Coffee Study

The study found that people who consumed either 2-3 cups of coffee, 3-5 cups of tea, or a combination of 4-6 cups of both had the lowest chance of developing dementia or experiencing a stroke compared with those who drank neither beverage.

The authors posited that “our findings suggested that moderate consumption of coffee and tea separately or in combination were associated with lower risk of stroke and dementia.”

So there you have it. Break out the kettles, dust off the cafetieres, and pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Your future self might thank you for it!

To read the research paper in its entirety, click here.

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