A new US-led study suggests that drinking moderate amounts of caffeinated coffee or tea may help preserve brain function and reduce the risk of dementia, although researchers caution that the findings do not prove a direct protective effect.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), analyzed questionnaire data from about 132,000 US adults followed over a 40-year period.
Researchers found that people with the highest daily intake of caffeinated coffee had an 18 per cent lower risk of developing dementia compared with those who consumed the least.
Participants with higher caffeine intake also reported fewer memory or thinking problems, with rates nearly two percentage points lower than those in the lowest intake group.
Similar patterns were observed among people who drank caffeinated tea, but not among consumers of decaffeinated beverages. The strongest associations were seen in individuals who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee or one to two cups of caffeinated tea per day. Those who drank caffeinated coffee also performed better on some objective tests of cognitive function.
