If coffee is good for your memory, shouldn’t Juan Valdez be a Jeopardy champion?
Caffeine is the world’s most widely used stimulant. It has been studied for its relationship to a remarkable number of conditions. When we searched for articles pertaining to coffee or caffeine in a medical database, there were almost twenty thousand references from the past forty years.
While many links between coffee and various cancers have been suggested, most evidence shows no connection between coffee intake and cancer of the oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, live, breast, ovary, kidney, and pancreas. There is a possible increased risk of bladder cancer with heavy coffee intake, but a slight decreased incidence of colon cancer. In the end, there seems no real reason to change your habits.
Now back to the question: Some studies have shown drinking coffee may help improve memory because it leads to increased attention and arousal. Investigators postulate that it can have a temporary effect on the growth of the nerve cells in the brain, specifically the spinelike structures on the nerve cells (dendrites). The effects of increased attention and arousal are only temporary and may be less significant in habitual coffee drinkers.
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"Does coffee help improve memory?" was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 10:37 pm.