McDonald’s — burger — fries — small drink — cookie

I’m noticing this coffee thing everywhere in the dementia news updates. For most of my life, I never drank coffee. Not in college, not in med school, not during residency, not in private practice. Am trying to remember when I started to drink 1-2 cups in the morning. Based on this article, maybe I should have been drinking coffee all along. And perhaps I need to drink a little more now. Coffee doesn’t seem to make me jittery but the teas sure do!  By the way, what is your favorite brand of coffee?

Midlife Coffee And Tea Drinking May Protect Against Late-life Dementia

ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2009) — Stockholm, Sweden — Midlife coffee drinking can decrease the risk of dementia/Alzheimer’s disease (AD) later in life. This conclusion is made in a Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) Study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

“We aimed to study the association between coffee and tea consumption at midlife and dementia/AD risk in late-life, because the long-term impact of caffeine on the central nervous system was still unknown, and as the pathologic processes leading to Alzheimer’s disease may start decades before the clinical manifestation of the disease,” says lead researcher, associate professor Miia Kivipelto, from the University of Kuopio, Finland and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

At the midlife examination, the consumption of coffee and tea was assessed with a previously validated semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire. Coffee drinking was categorized into three groups: 0-2 cups (low), 3-5 cups (moderate) and >5 cups (high) per day. Further, the question concerning tea consumption was dichotomized into those not drinking tea (0 cup/day) vs. those drinking tea (≥1 cup/day).

The study found that coffee drinkers at midlife had lower risk for dementia and AD later in life compared to those drinking no or only little coffee. The lowest risk (65% decreased) was found among moderate coffee drinkers (drinking 3-5 cups of coffee/day). Adjustments for various confounders did not change the results. Tea drinking was relatively uncommon and was not associated with dementia/AD.

Kivipelto also notes that, “Given the large amount of coffee consumption globally, the results might have important implications for the prevention of or delaying the onset of dementia/AD. The finding needs to be confirmed by other studies, but it opens the possibility that dietary interventions could modify the risk of dementia/AD. Also, identification of mechanisms of how coffee exerts its protection against dementia/AD might help in the development of new therapies for these diseases.”

---

Journal reference:

1. Marjo H. Eskelinen, Tiia Ngandu, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Hilkka Soininen, Miia Kivipelto. Midlife Coffee and Tea Drinking and the Risk of Late-Life Dementia: A Population-based CAIDE Study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 16(1), xx-xx

Fun and more fun. Here’s the weekender for you. Just pretend you’re at McDonalds.

Fast Food Frank stopped in a brand-new burger joint for his quick lunch. Checking the lighted menu behind the counter, he saw that the following combinations were available:

• Burger and fries:  $3.50
• Fries and a small drink:  $2.25
• Small drink and a cookie:  $1.50
• Burger and cookie:  ??
  

Unfortunately, the lights behind the price of Frank’s favorite combo, a burger and cookie, were burned out and he didn’t know how much it was. It was the counter clerk’s first day on the job, and he didn’t know the price either. Luckily, Fast Food Frank was fast at figures and figured out how much a burger-and-cookie combo cost just by lookint at the other combo prices. What is the price of the burger-and-cookie combo?

I’ll work on it too. I’ll give out the answer next week. Have a good weekend.

Warmly…….David