Autism Vox

The Coffee-Memory Link (for some of us)

by Kristina Chew, PhD on August 7th, 2007

A bit of good news, so to speak: Caffeine may protect memory in women, according to a study done by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research and published in Neurology, and noted in today’s Science Daily.

The catch? The study concerns women 65 and over:

…..women age 65 and older who drank more than three cups of coffee — or the equivalent in tea — per day had less decline over time on tests of memory than women who drank one cup or less of coffee or tea per day. The results held even after researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect memory abilities, such as age, education, disability, depression, high blood pressure, medications, cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses.

Well, that means that if I keep up my current coffee-drinking habits (and I drink it black and strong, thank you very much), they will be of help in 26 1/2 years. Certainly I’d like to ensure my memory holds out then as Charlie will be 36 1/2 and he has enough trouble keeping track of where he puts his various possessions, from his backpack to his iPod to where his socks are. (I do have his clothes organized in his room but the shoes get left all over and what good is it to find one shoe when the bus is waiting…….)

Then there’s the regular plethora of dates and therapy sessions and appointments and the phone numbers and emails and URLs and names of students and the courses they want to take and the syllabi to write and the school holidays to coordinate with my parents’ visit and—-Jim and I inevitably schedule things at the same time, with the resulting “you’ve got to meet Charlie at the bus!” sort of exchanges. We’ve tried writing down things on a big calendar for each other to note but then we have to remember to write on the calendar……. Somehow there has never been no one there for the bus.

I use a good old-fashioned datebook that I write in with, yes, whatever basic old ballpoint pen I can find—and yes, it has been stained with more than a few drops of coffee. As will many future datebooks, even up until the year 2033.

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POSTED IN: Food and Diet, Neuroscience, Parenting, Schoolbus