Coffee may help older women retain their memories

Drinking more than three cups of coffee or tea a day can help older women retain memories.

Dr. Ricci and others at the French National Center for Health and Medical Research completed a large study. Researchers asked about 7000 men and women aged an average of 74 in three French cities, Bordeaux, Dijon and Montpellier, how many cups of coffee and tea they drank daily, as well as low-caffeine drugs and Coca-Cola. The subjects took multiple mental skills tests. The test consists of a series of word memory tests. Importantly, the experimental group also repeated mental skills tests at years 2 and 4.

The results showed several characteristics. First, there was little decline in test scores after 2-4 years in older women who drank more than three cups of coffee or tea a day compared with older women who drank one cup of coffee or tea a day; second, this finding was particularly evident in women's verbal memory; and third, coffee did not seem to affect women's risk of developing dementia (Alzheimer's disease). The researchers say this may be because the study was too short to have a significant effect.

At the same time, dr rich and other researchers noted that coffee had no significant effect on men's multi-year mental skills test scores. The researchers speculate that coffee may help women remember because women are more sensitive to caffeine.