Growing old has enough problems associated with it without the fear of memory loss and dementia, along with mental impairment the characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease. It can occur in middle age but it’s more likely to affect older people.
Unfortunately no one knows exactly what causes it and so there is no obvious cure. And with loss of memory and confusion, people suffering from the disease become unable to look after themselves.
So when a possible treatment is put forward it’s worth taking note, especially if it involves caffeine and, by extension, coffee.
The news comes from the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre in Florida, U.S. whose experiments show that caffeine could be useful in treating the disease.
They did experiments on 55 older mice that were genetically changed to develop the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The mice were given caffeine that would equate to five cups of coffee a day – that’s 500mg. The experiment showed that over a period of 2 months, their memory impairment was reversed back to the normal memory standard of normal mice without dementia.
It was shown that taking in caffeine significantly decreased the abnormal levels of a protein linked to the disease. This decrease occurred in both the brains and blood of the mice.
It was concluded that in mice with the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, caffeine actually boosted their memory and that caffeine could be a viable treatment for Alzheimer’s rather than just a protection against it.
It would seem that doses of at least 500mg are necessary although there is no data to prove that a lower dose would not be effective as well.
In other experiments using caffeine in coffee form, the drug was seen to block several of the disruptive effects of cholesterol that makes the blood-brain barrier, a filter system that protects the central nervous system from harmful chemicals carried in the blood, leak, which makes the brain vulnerable to damage that might trigger the disease.
The problem with Caffeine, as with any drug, is that it has its down side. People with high blood pressure, for instance, should limit the amount of caffeine they take in, as it tends to boost blood pressure. The same applies to pregnant women, although it’s not generally known whether, or how much, caffeine would need to be taken in to do lasting damage to an unborn child. Experiments seem to point to a reasonable amount with very high caffeine intake by the mother.
So far it’s not know whether the changes perpetrated by caffeine are long lasting or not. Experiments are still being carried out to establish this. But as there is still no cure, things look promising where caffeine use is concerned – at least with mice. Now it’s time for experiments with caffeine to be tried on humans to see what affect it might have on them.
For most people caffeine is a relatively safe drug, so its use would be good news indeed for Alzheimer’s sufferers.