A new scientific study suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee or tea may protect memory and reasoning for women over 65 years old. Scientists from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research ran mental tests on 7000 men and women, all 65 years or older, and then tested them again two and four years later. Women who reported drinking heavy amounts of caffeine, did better on the tests on average than those who drank less. Men experienced no visible benefit. From Science News:
Although the study's design precluded investigating the possible mechanism for a gender difference, (researcher Karen) Ritchie notes that at least one animal study published by others "suggests there's an interaction between caffeine and the [female] sex hormones estrogen and progesterone."
If caffeine's protective effect works by interacting with receptors for estrogen on a women's cells, this might explain another preliminary observation by the French team: that among heavy caffeine consumers, women over age 80 faced half the risk of significant cognitive decline during the study than ladies 65 to 80 did…
One disappointing observation, Ritchie notes, is that even heavy caffeine intake didn't reduce the risk of developing outright dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease.
