Alzheimer's? Just take a cuppa coffee
A cup of coffee daily can help you in more ways than you think. For example, the daily dose of caffeine can keep Alzheimer's disease at bay
New York: A daily dose of caffeine blocks the disruptive effects of high cholesterol that scientists link with Alzheimer's disease.
Caffeine equivalent of just a daily cup of coffee could protect the blood-brain barrier (BBB) from damage that occurs with a high-fat diet, according to a study.
The BBB protects the central nervous system (CNS) from the rest of the body's circulation, providing the brain with its own regulated microenvironment.
Previous studies have shown that high levels of cholesterol break down the BBB that can then no longer protect the CNS from the damage caused by blood borne contamination. BBB leakage occurs in a variety of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
In this study, researchers of University of North Dakota (UND) gave rabbits three mg caffeine daily or the equivalent of an average daily cup of coffee. The rabbits were fed a cholesterol-enriched diet during this time.
After 12 weeks a number of lab tests showed that the BBB was significantly more intact in rabbits receiving a daily dose of caffeine.
Findings of the study have been published in the open access Journal of Neuroinflammation.
"Caffeine appears to block several of the disruptive effects of cholesterol that make the blood-brain barrier leaky," says Jonathan Geige of UND.
"High levels of cholesterol are a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, perhaps by compromising the protective nature of the blood-brain barrier. For the first time we have shown that chronic ingestion of caffeine protects the BBB from cholesterol-induced leakage.
"Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug and its ability to stabilise the blood-brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders."
Drink coffee to keep cancer at bay
Now medical scientists say that drinking three cups of coffee a day can also cut risk of ovarian cancer
London: Caffeine may not be good for to-be-moms as it increases the risk of miscarriage. But a new study has found that drinking three cups of coffee daily can help prevent ovarian cancer in women.
A team of international researchers has carried out the study and found that women who take caffeine equivalent to three cups of coffee everyday are less likely to develop ovarian cancer later in life.
"We observed a significant inverse trend of ovarian cancer risk with caffeine intake. The reasons why caffeine protects against ovarian cancer is not clear and further studies will be carried out," lead researcher Shelley Tworoger of Harvard Medical School wrote in the 'Cancer' journal.
The team came to the conclusion after analysing the effects of coffee intake on a group of nurses. The researchers compared the diets of 80,000 of these women with the incidence of ovarian cancer as part of the study between 1976 and 2004.
According to the researchers, 737 of them developed ovarian cancer during the study period.
Those who had at least three cups of coffee a day were found to be 20 per cent less likely to develop the disease than those who drank none. Moreover, those who did not opt for hormone replacement therapy, the risk was 43 per cent less.
However, the benefits and risks of drinking coffee continue to be the subject of much debate.
"The jury is still out as to whether or not caffeine affects the risk of ovarian cancer because evidence from previous studies looking at this link has been inconsistent," the 'Daily Mail' quoted Josephine Querido of Cancer Research UK as saying.
Ref: Indo-Asian News Service
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