Health effects of Coffee Coffee aroma enhances brain activity

Do you drink coffee to keep your head clear? Or to enjoy the rich and warm fragrance? Rodents can alter the activity of brain genes simply by smelling coffee, an international team of scientists has reported.

Han-Seok Seo and his colleagues point out that hundreds of studies have been done on the ingredients of coffee, especially the health benefits of coffee. "but few studies have dealt with the aroma of coffee, which is the first to show that the aroma of coffee beans can relieve the mental stress caused by coffee stimulation and sleep deprivation."

In experiments with mice, scientists have found that the aroma of coffee can stimulate the activity of some genes and change the protein expression of genes, thus helping mice reduce the mental stress caused by sleep deprivation.

To fill the gap, scientists asked some sleepless rats to inhale the aroma of coffee and analyzed their brain gene and protein expression.

Compared with the mice in the forced insomnia group, the mice with forced insomnia and coffee inhalation showed different activities on 17 genes, 13 genes on mRNA, and beneficial antioxidant activity that maintained the stress resistance of neurons.

So does the taste of coffee really change the activity of genes in the human brain? You might as well give it a try.