Member-only story
This is How Much Coffee to Drink to Protect Your Brain
It is well known that coffee causes energy and alertness, but coffee can also be a potent cognitive enhancer.
Coffee seems to strongly protect against Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia — but there is a sweet spot consumption range to keep in mind.
In the CAIDE study (Cardiovascular risk factors, Aging and Dementia), drinking 3–5 cups of coffee per day at midlife (average age 50.4 years) was associated with a decreased risk of dementia by 65% and Alzheimer’s disease by 64% after a 21-year follow-up.
That finding is consistent with another study — the FINE study (Finland, Italy and the Netherlands Elderly) — which found that elderly men who drank 3 cups of coffee per day had the lowest amount of cognitive decline over the following 10 years.
Zooming out a bit further, a large systematic review conducted last year looked at 61 different studies between 1990 and 2020, examining the link between caffeine consumption and dementia risk. The analysis found that moderate caffeine intake (100–400 mg/day) was associated with improved cognitive function, whereas low (<100 mg/day) and high (>400 mg/day) caffeine intake generally had no impact on risk of dementia or cognitive performance.
