In the past few years one of the biggest health topics on a lot of people's mind is Alzheimer's. This terrifying condition effects mainly the elderly as it slow erodes the neuron-connections in the brain, leading at first to short term memory loss, then long term, and eventually resulting in death (in simplest terms your mind 'forgets' how to function'). It's an incredibly difficult situation to watch a family member suffer through and it is something researchers are working hard towards curing or preventing.
A recent study conducted by the University of South Florida found that a yet to be identified compound that interacts with the caffine in coffee can help prevent Alzheimer's. In the study, researchers used mice bred to develop Alzheimer's symptoms. The USF researchers found that caffeinated coffee causes an increase in blood levels of the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Alzheimer's patients generally lack sufficient quantities of GCSF. In lab mice with Alzheimer's, GCSF has been showen to improve memory. Three types of products where used in testing: caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee and caffeine alone. Only the caffeinated drip coffee showed an increase in GCSF. That means don't bother downing Red Bulls or other energy drinks and just stick to coffee. "Caffeinated coffee provides a natural increase in blood GCSF levels," said Dr. Chuanhai Cao of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute, a lead author of the study. But, "the exact ways that this occurs is not understood."
How many cups should you drink to benefit? Well, thats up for study too, but its safe to assume that 1-2 would be just fine.
Now...where did we put that Tylers Coffee at...
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