{"id":332334,"date":"2026-02-11T20:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/332334\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:56:12","slug":"moderate-caffeinated-coffee-and-tea-consumption-can-lower-dementia-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/332334\/","title":{"rendered":"Moderate Caffeinated Coffee and Tea Consumption Can Lower Dementia Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of the largest prospective cohort studies to date, moderate consumption of caffeinated coffee (2-3 cups a day) or tea (1-2 cups a day) correlated with reduced dementia risk and modest improvements in cognitive function, although decaffeinated coffee showed no protective effect.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Zhang<\/a><\/p>\n

Zhang et al. determined that moderate caffeinated coffee and tea intake can lower dementia risk. Image credit: Sci.News.<\/p>\n

Early prevention is especially crucial for dementia, since current treatments are limited and typically offer only modest benefit once symptoms appear.<\/p>\n

Focus on prevention has led researchers to investigate the influences of lifestyle factors like diet on dementia development.<\/p>\n

Coffee and tea contain bioactive ingredients like polyphenols and caffeine, which have emerged as possible neuroprotective factors that reduce inflammation and cellular damage while protecting against cognitive decline.<\/p>\n

Though promising, findings about the relationship between coffee and dementia have been inconsistent, as studies have had limited follow-up and insufficient detail to capture long-term intake patterns, differences by beverage type, or the full continuum of outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen searching for possible dementia prevention tools, we thought something as prevalent as coffee may be a promising dietary intervention \u2014 and our unique access to high quality data through studies that has been going on for more than 40 years allowed us to follow through on that idea,\u201d said Dr. Daniel Wang, a researcher at the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile our results are encouraging, it\u2019s important to remember that the effect size is small and there are lots of important ways to protect cognitive function as we age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study suggests that caffeinated coffee or tea consumption can be one piece of that puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Wang and colleagues analyzed data for 131,821 participants from the Nurses\u2019 Health Study (NHS) and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS).<\/p>\n

The researchers compared how caffeinated coffee, tea, and decaffeinated coffee influenced dementia risk and cognitive health of each participant.<\/p>\n

Of the more than 130,000 participants, 11,033 developed dementia.<\/p>\n

Both male and female participants with the highest intake of caffeinated coffee had an 18% lower risk of dementia compared with those who reported little or no caffeinated coffee consumption.<\/p>\n

Caffeinated coffee drinkers also had lower prevalence of subjective cognitive decline (7.8% versus 9.5%).<\/p>\n

By some measurements, those who drank caffeinated coffee also showed better performance on objective tests of overall cognitive function.<\/p>\n

Higher tea intake showed similar results, while decaffeinated coffee did not \u2014 suggesting that caffeine may be the active factor producing these neuroprotective results, though further research is needed to validate the responsible factors and mechanisms.<\/p>\n

The cognitive benefits were most pronounced in participants who consumed 2-3 cups of caffeinated coffee or 1-2 cups of tea daily.<\/p>\n

Contrary to several previous studies, higher caffeine intake did not yield negative effects \u2014 instead, it provided similar neuroprotective benefits to the optimal dosage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also compared people with different genetic predispositions to developing dementia and saw the same results \u2014 meaning coffee or caffeine is likely equally beneficial for people with high and low genetic risk of developing dementia,\u201d said Yu Zhang, a Ph.D. student at Harvard Chan School and a research trainee at Mass General Brigham.<\/p>\n

The findings<\/a> appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Y. Zhang et al. Coffee and Tea Intake, Dementia Risk, and Cognitive Function. JAMA, published online February 9, 2026; doi: 10.1001\/jama.2025.27259<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of the largest prospective cohort studies to date, moderate consumption of caffeinated coffee (2-3 cups a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[159,10342,6281,2834,868,18,135,19,17,10348],"class_list":["post-332334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-brain","tag-caffeine","tag-coffee","tag-cognitive-function","tag-dementia","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tea"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116053998526909177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}