Study Links Moderate Coffee, Tea to Lower Dementia Risk

A new study suggests that moderate daily consumption of caffeinated coffee or tea may reduce the risk of developing dementia later in life. Researchers analyzed health data from more than 130,000 U.S. adults and found that those who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee or one to two cups of caffeinated tea each day had about an 18 percent and 14 percent lower risk of dementia, respectively, compared to those who consumed little or none. The findings, published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, drew from two long-term cohorts: the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

The research tracked participants starting in the 1980s, with follow-up extending up to 43 years. Dietary habits were assessed repeatedly through questionnaires, allowing scientists to monitor changes over time. Among the 131,821 volunteers, who were free of cancer, Parkinson's disease or dementia at enrollment, approximately 11,000 cases of dementia were documented via medical records, self-reports and death certificates. Those in the highest consumption groups showed not only a lower incidence of dementia but also modestly better performance on...