In class on
Monday, we discussed that excitatory neurons have protective measures against an
inflammation response. This is why many people suggest that older people
continue to “use their brains” to keep new and old synapses firing. This also
made me wonder what other ‘protective mechanisms’ are out there to slow down
the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Interestingly enough, I found this article
about a connection between caffeine, coffee, and Alzheimer’s disease that was
published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in June 2011. From previous
studies that have found that daily coffee/caffeine intake during mid-life can
decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at the University of
South Florida wanted to determine what exactly the coffee and caffeine were
doing to the brain. They already had found
that the caffeine can cause a decrease in beta-amyloid production in the brain,
but since other caffeinated drinks and decaffeinated coffee did not show
decreased production of the protein, they were more interested in other
ingredients in the coffee that could have an effect.
In their new study, they found that caffeinated coffee (and not other caffeinated drinks and de-caffeinated coffee) boosted blood levels of a growth factor called GCSF, granulocyte colony stimulating factor. This factor is important for recruiting bone marrow stem cells to move to the brain to remove the beta-amyloid proteins and increases new neuronal connections. Consequently, researchers believe that GCSF is associated with improved memory function and protecting against AD.
What was really interesting to me is that in order to get this beneficial protective effect, a person needs to consume 4 to 5 cups of coffee a day. Considering that the average person only drinks 1.5 to 2 cups a day, 4 to 5 cups seems a little excessive.
What do you all think? Is this a good avenue to pursue on preventing Alzheimer's disease? Coffee does have a lot of antioxidants that help reduce inflammation so could this maybe play a role in lowering the risk of AD as well?
Here is the article:
University of South Florida (USF Health). "Mystery ingredient in coffee boots protection against Alzheimer's disease, study finds." ScienceDaily. 28 Jun. 2011.
For one individual to consume 4-5 cups of coffee a day to prevent his risk of AD is absurd because no human being should undergo that much caffeine intake. I'm lucky to finish my coffee in the morning! Maybe there is a derivative that could be made from the caffeine that could serve as a preventative aspect for AD. After reading this article, I can easily tell you what the downside of drinking 4-5 cups a day; a major headache and withdrawals.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading this blog post I was so happy because I'm addicted to coffee/caffeine. However, 4-5 cups a day is a bit much for me to drink. I do agree with Cassie, maybe there is a derivative that can be made. My parents and several friends are able to drink that many cups, so obviously it can be done. It's a cheaper way to hopefully prevent or slow down the development of Alzheimer's disease, but it is important that the individual consumes a lot of water. The downfall about drinking this many cups is that some people are unable to handle that much caffeine. Their heart rates begin to increase and they become slightly shaky. However, I do think that if an individual is capable of drinking that many cups of coffee, they should.
ReplyDeleteI agree to Cassie as well. Five cups a day of coffee is an unrealistic number. Like Cassie indicated earlier, it is going to have a negative effects on other body systems such as dehydration following ADH insensitivity. Additionally, not many people drink coffee without sugar or sweetener, so that may put people at risk of many other negative consequences. However, the correlation between caffeine and Alzheimer is a very interesting and exciting fact. Thank you for the great post.
ReplyDeleteI think we are getting to hung up on the 4 to five cups of coffee a day, in my opinion. Though it is established that caffeine decreased beta-amyloid protein production, what this article states is that there is something else...an other that tag teams with coffee to find alzheimer's. Which is pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with Jeff. It's really cool that they are finding ways of how to prevent neurodegenerative diseases. Although it's not a cure, prevention tactics can always be useful, especially for those who have these kinds of diseases in their family history and are more prone to getting them. In one of my classes I took last semester (MED 393A), I did a presentation on dementia, and an interesting I learned was that daily exercise can help decrease your chance of getting dementia at old ages. All in all, I feel like if you maintain a healthy lifestyle and keep working your brain, your chances of getting neurodegenerative diseases could possibly go down!
ReplyDeleteI think more research is needed in order to determine if this is a good avenue to pursue for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease...5 cups of coffee a day is A LOT. I definitely consume more than the average person daily, but even that is way too much for me. I think it would be a really interesting side study to extract the ingredients in coffee that have shown to decrease the amount of ß-amyloid sheath in the brain and find a way to administer that into test subjects. I am wondering if the caffeine is even the culprit here, because there are so many other ingredients in your every day cup of coffee that could be contributing to this reduction of the ß-amyloid sheaths.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else that 4-5 cups of coffee daily would probably not be the best idea. Over a long period of time the people would get use to the amount of caffeine consumption, so would this mean that the amount of coffee intake daily would increase as well when time goes by?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this is a very interesting article and research. Coffee is something most people consume daily. We all have heard how antioxidants can decrease the rate of occurrence of different diseases and unnecessary inflammation and how coffee has lots of antioxidants. I would say that drinking coffee is an easy preventative process to avoid illness. In this case, AD is not a problem anyone would like to deal with in life. At the same time I would say 4-5 cups of coffee is a bit excessive and believe that this research should be continued to be able to make some kind of medication, which could be taken once a day, like a vitamin. I used to work at an engineering company and the coffee machine was always on and running. I remember that they all use to have coffee constantly, which was from 8am-5pm, which adds up to much more than 4-5 cups of coffee a day. So many people actually do consume that much coffee without even realizing it.
ReplyDeleteWho knew that consuming 4-5 cups of coffee a day could potentially help reduce the risk of AD. I am not a coffee drinker, but I would think that 4-5 cups of caffeinated coffee would be too much to consume in one day. However, like Brittany mentioned, if you have family history of AD, it might be a good idea to start consuming more coffee than you usually drink to reduce your risk of developing AD.
ReplyDeleteThese are some really great findings and everybody so far has made some really great points. If you can handle 4-5 cups of coffee, then go for it. Most people, however, cannot handle that much coffee... And if they could, Sho noted that very rarely to people drink black coffee.
ReplyDeleteInstead of getting hung up on the coffee thing, we should start moving towards the exact ingredients and antioxidants that the coffee possesses. The researchers should attempt to isolate the select few ingredients that actually help to boost GCSF. Then we could concentrate them and make a great brain boosting serum.
Is the whole idea far-fetched? Yeah, probably. But it's a whole lot far-fetched than trying to get the population training their bodies for copious amounts of caffeine. Way to get us stirring up these ideas, Sarah!
I definitely agree with Carl. Focusing on other components of coffee to create a "brain-boosting serum" would be awesome! The more research done, the better, and the more long term it is, of course is best.
ReplyDeleteLove the concept!
Yes, I will definitely agree that 4-5 cups of coffee a day is too much to handle. From experience, having had 3 cups of coffee at work one day, was a big mistake. I like Carl's idea of the serum. Not only should it be done with the coffee ingredients, but with other ingredients in other research that seem to benefit the human body. I love coffee! mostly due to it's flavor, so if I'm wanting to do more than 2 cups I'll just grab decaf. Great post Sarah :)
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