Maybe you saw it in the news, but a new study found that chemical compounds in espresso (including caffeine) interfere with the formation of tau protein tangles, and may therefore protect against Alzheimer's disease. Speaking as a major coffee lover, this sounds too good to be true. (But we can at least pretend to be sure it is.)
On July 19, the research was published by the American Chemical Society in their journal Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Long story short, researchers from the University of Verona in Italy collected commercial samples of espresso and extracted certain chemicals from them, including the caffeine. In the laboratory, they then exposed brain tissue samples to the chemicals and found that tau proteins formed shorter fibrils, and did not agglomerate as readily. This apparently inhibited their ability to spread the disease throughout the brain.
Okay, to understand this, we need to go back to Beating the Dementia Monster and review some of the things we said there. We discussed tau tangles -- clumps of tau protein that aggregated when defective tau protein lost its strength and couldn't hold the microtubules together. The microtubules are like the skeleton of the brain cell. In Alzheimer's disease, they lose their strength and collapse into a "tau tangle." The brain cell then dies. Alois Alzheimer saw these tangles, along with amyloid plaques, in the brain of his deceased patient, Auguste Deter.
We also said that Alzheimer's disease can proceed for as many as 15 years before the first symptoms appear. Apparently, at about 15 years, there is a "tipping point." At the tipping point, defective tau protein is abruptly seeded throughout the brain, spreading the disease and creating disruptions in cognition and memory. The researchers concluded that the shorter fibrils would not spread through the brain, and the espresso might stop the disease from advancing.
At least that's what happens in a petri dish. Does that also happen in the human brain? As usual, they tell us, "More research is necessary."
I'm not waiting for more research. I'm going to continue consuming my coffee. Unfortunately, the caffeine also aggravates my insomnia, primarily through nocturia. According to my urologist, the caffeine irritates the bladder at night creating a sensation of needing to void. If I'm off caffeine, I'll get up 2 or 3 times per night. If I've had too much, even several days previously, I could be up more than 5 times.
Here's my question - would espresso and coffee do the same thing? Why did the study say espresso in particular?
ReplyDeleteAn update - I reached out to the researcher -
ReplyDeleteQuestion: "I currently drink coffee regularly, but espresso only on occasion. I'm trying to decide if I should make a change. Did your research find that espresso is beneficial above regular coffee? Or is drinking coffee also a good move?"
Answer: "We made a in-vitro research using only espresso. We still don't know to what extent our findings are confirmed in vivo.
However, the molecules contained in the regular coffe are not so different in terms of type and amount, from that of expresso."