I’ve been a regular coffee drinker since college (and especially during the tough days of med school.) Last year, I covered a pair of recent research papers indicating a link between regular coffee consumption and reduced mortality from stroke and cardiovascular disease.
A new research paper suggests a strong link between regular coffee (or tea) consumption and a reduced risk of dementia. A study of over 130,000 adult men and women between the years 1980-2023 tracked dietary consumption of caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee, and tea. These data were correlated with the development of dementia as well as with performance on neuropsychological tests.
The results were impressive. After accounting for confounders, people who drank caffeinated coffee had a significantly lower rate of dementia—specifically, 141 versus 330 cases per 100,000 person-years. That’s a greater than 50% reduction in the risk of developing dementia! Coffee drinkers also showed significantly improved objective cognitive performance on neuropsychological tests.
If you prefer tea to coffee, don’t worry. According to the paper, “Higher tea intake showed similar associations with these cognitive outcomes.”
However, the cognitive benefits only applied to those who drank caffeinated coffee. The authors noted that “decaffeinated coffee intake was not associated with a lower risk of dementia or better cognitive performance.”
How much coffee should one drink? The publication states, “The most pronounced relative differences were observed with intakes of approximately 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day or 1 to 2 cups of tea per day.”
This amount is roughly in line with previous work suggesting that for cardiovascular benefit, “the sweet spot for daily consumption can be found around 3 cups of coffee or tea (or 250 mg of caffeine).”
The current work on the cognitive benefits of coffee did not distinguish between drinking coffee in the morning versus later in the day. (In contrast, one of the papers on heart benefits found that drinking coffee was beneficial only in the morning, as opposed to drinking coffee during the day.) Nor is it clear whether the effect is due to caffeine, one of caffeine’s metabolites, or some other bioactive substance in coffee or tea that is absent from decaffeinated coffee.
As with similar previous reports, this is an observational study, not a randomized controlled trial. Correlation does not imply causation. There could be something subtly different about the behavior or lifestyle of regular coffee or tea drinkers versus non-drinkers that could affect dementia risk, regardless of caffeine consumption. Ideally, further research may reveal any underlying biochemical mechanisms that could explain the link between caffeine intake and protection against dementia.
I would also like to see if this result holds true in populations in other parts of the world, where coffee consumption is common but diet and lifestyle may be very different from the US-based population sample in this study.
If you want to know about other health benefits of regular moderate coffee consumption, this article from Johns Hopkins Medicine it covers a few more, including reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, reduced risk of colon cancer, and improved liver health.
For now, I plan to maintain my regular habit of drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day without qualms. If you regularly enjoy some daily coffee, feel free to do the same!
Coffee cup and coffee beans on wooden table, aromatic cup of Espresso Crema coffee
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