The neuroprotective effects of caffeine

Here's some introductory information regarding the primary source of evidence: the journal Neurology, a publication of The American Academy of Neurology - AAN -- from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

American Academy of Neurology - AAN

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The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is a professional society composed of neurologists and professionals in related fields who share a common goal of continued growth and development of the neurological sciences.

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The Academy publishes several brochures on neurology which are used by members for patient information. The Patient Information Guide for Neurology lists organizations which can supply information and materials on specific diseases. The publication, Neurologist, describes what a neurologist is and does. Serial publications: Neurology (journal), monthly; AANews (newsletter), monthly.

Here is some info from wikipedia on AAN:

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is a professional society for neurologists and neuroscientists. As a medical specialty society it was established in 1949 to advance the art and science of neurology, and thereby promote the best possible care for patients with neurological disorders.

Annual Meeting The annual meeting of the AAN is attended by more than 15,000 neurologists and neuroscientists from the US and abroad. The 2007 meeting will be in Boston featuring scientific presentations and educational courses. Plenary presentations on three days will highlight cutting edge clinical, translational and basic research. The annual "Future of Neuroscience" conference is titled "Therapies of Genetic Disorders" and will feature talks on enzyme replacement, gene therapy, siRNA, and stem cells ([1]).

Here is the study abstract:

NEUROLOGY 2007;69:536-545
© 2007 American Academy of Neurology

The neuroprotective effects of caffeine

A prospective population study (the Three City Study)

K. Ritchie, PhD, I. Carrière, PhD, A. de Mendona, MD, PhD, F. Portet, MD, PhD, J. F. Dartigues, MD, PhD, O. Rouaud, MD, P. Barberger-Gateau, MD, PhD and M. L. Ancelin, PhD

From INSERM U888 (K.R., I.C., F.P., A.d.M., M.L.A.), Montpellier; INSERM U593 (J.F.D., P.B.-G.), Bordeaux University 2; INSERM U708 (O.R.), University of Paris, France; and Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neurosciences (A.d.M.), University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Karen Ritchie, INSERM U888 Nervous System Pathologies: Epidemiological and Clinical Research, La Colombière Hospital, 34093 Montpellier Cedex 5, France ritchie@montp.inserm.fr

Objective: To examine the association between caffeine intake, cognitive decline, and incident dementia in a community-based sample of subjects aged 65 years and over.

Methods: Participants were 4,197 women and 2,820 men from a population-based cohort recruited from three French cities. Cognitive performance, clinical diagnosis of dementia, and caffeine consumption were evaluated at baseline and at 2 and 4 year follow-up.

Results: Caffeine consumption is associated with a wide range of sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical variables which may also affect cognitive decline. Multivariate mixed models and multivariate adjusted logistic regression indicated that women with high rates of caffeine consumption (over three cups per day) showed less decline in verbal retrieval (OR = 0.67, CI = 0.53, 0.85), and to a lesser extent in visuospatial memory (OR = 0.82, CI = 0.65, 1.03) over 4 years than women consuming one cup or less. The protective effect of caffeine was observed to increase with age (OR = 0.73, CI = 0.53, 1.02 in the age range 65 to 74; OR = 0.3, CI = 0.14, 0.63 in the range 80+). No relation was found between caffeine intake and cognitive decline in men. Caffeine consumption did not reduce dementia risk over 4 years.

Conclusions: The psychostimulant properties of caffeine appear to reduce cognitive decline in women without dementia, especially at higher ages. Although no impact is observed on dementia incidence, further studies are required to ascertain whether caffeine may nonetheless be of potential use in prolonging the period of mild cognitive impairment in women prior to a diagnosis of dementia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

The 3C Study is conducted under a partnership agreement among INSERM, the Victor Segalen–Bordeaux II University, and Sanofi-Synthélabo. The Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale funded the preparation and first phase of the study. The 3C-Study is also supported by the Caisse Nationale Maladie des Travailleurs Salariés, Direction Générale de la Santé, MGEN, the Institut de la Longévité, Agence Franaise de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé, the regional governments of Aquitaine, Bourgogne, and Languedoc-Roussillon, and the Fondation de France, the Ministry of Research-INSERM Programme "Cohorts and collection of biological material." The Lille Génopôle received an unconditional grant from Eisai.

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received November 30, 2006. Accepted in final form March 5, 2007.

Copyright © 2007 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.

For a mainstream medical version of this story, please click here to read: "Caffeine Protects Thinking And Memory In Older Women."

I guess the good old 'caf is better for women than men...I wonder why? Could it be possible due to the smaller sample size of women?

Participants were 4,197 women and 2,820 men

Thoughts or comments?

Take care.

Last time I checked, there is more to coffee and tea than caffeine.

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Last time I checked, there is more to coffee and tea than caffeine.

Dear shepard,

Thank you for commenting! Can you please provide us with some supporting evidence that might suggest that there is "more to coffee and tea than caffeine?"

More specifically, can you please provide us with evidence to demonstrate an effect that other compounds (besides caffeine) in coffee and tea may have on human cognition? I am aware of the presense of other compounds (as are -- I am sure -- the authors of the publication cited above) in coffee and tea -- but none that may be significant enough to have a measurable effect on human cognition through the doses of coffee and tea such as were consumed in the study cited above (I'd be pleased if you could demonstrate otherwise ). I am aware of the presence of some antioxidants, but none with any specific neurological function.

There have been other recent reports on the beneficial effects of caffeine -- separately -- of interest may be:

1. Caffeine and exercise may help prevent skin cancer, in mice (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

2. Coffee drinking and hepatocellular carcinoma risk:, A meta-analysis (The Journal Hepatology)

The fact that it works only in women, makes discerning an moa difficult.

Adam -- Thanks again for an awesome post. I really appreciate your info. However, I have to agree that coffee contains antioxidants and phytochemicals (much of which we don't know about) that may be of benefit. I wish the regression analysis above compare decaffeineted coffee.

As an aside, the problem with regression analysis is omitted variable bias -- could there be something else correlated with coffee consumption that is also correlated with cognitive improvement? How about some kind of education variable -- e.g., more educated drink more coffee, thus slower cognitive decline.

Can you please provide us with some supporting evidence that might suggest that there is "more to coffee and tea than caffeine?"

This article is focused on diabetes, but read through it and you'll find some other potential ways coffee could be exerting its effects: http://www.ajcn.org/...ll/84/4/682#top

I fully think the acute cognitive effects are due to caffeine. And, caffeine has some neuroprotection effects via adenosine receptor antagonism. But, from a long-term cognitive health standpoint, I think it's premature to give full credit to caffeine. It could be quite a few things.

www.guardian.co.uk

It sounds like a partygoer's dream: a chemical combination of caffeine and alcohol. But this is no recreational drug - scientists in Texas believe this medicinal version of Irish coffee could be used to treat the effects of strokes.

Strokes happen in one of two ways: a clot forms in an artery in the brain, killing brain cells by starving them of oxygen; or a vessel bursts in the brain, interrupting circulation, with the haem-orrhage damaging delicate brain cells.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical School are using caffeinol to treat the first type of stroke, which accounts for 86% of all strokes.

Researchers found that brain damage in rats was reduced by up to 80% if caffeinol was given within three hours of a stroke.

But how it works is a mystery. "Normally, alcohol relaxes arteries," Konrad Jamrozik, professor of primary care epidemiology at Imperial College London, says. "Caffeine can sometimes constrict arteries, so that seems a bit paradoxical."

These questions will be answered once the drug goes through clinical trials. So far, 23 stroke patients have been treated with the drug but Jamrozik says a proper trial needs to test a far greater number.

About a quarter of people who suffer a stroke die in the first month. To reliably detect a reduction of 10% in this death rate, around 13,000 patients would need to be studied.

But the research is promising for a field that has stalled in recent years. "We are struggling to find a way of limiting the damage once the stroke occurs," Jamrozik says. "[Clot-busting drugs] made an important advance in the 1980s and are now used worldwide. We have not seen the same leap forward for strokes."

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Coffee beans contain antioxidants and considering it's wide spread use it would be safe to say then that coffee is most likely the most used i.e number 1, antioxidant is the US and most likely in the world.

Just did a search and lookey here