caffeine

Moderate coffee consumption may promote brain health — and it’s not because of caffeine

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How Cof­fee May Pro­tect Brain Health: A New Study Sug­gests The Ben­e­fits Aren’t Just From Caf­feine (Forbes):

“Cof­fee has been get­ting con­sid­er­able atten­tion for a grow­ing list of health ben­e­fits, with brain health high among them. While not with­out a few down­sides, stud­ies have shown impres­sive upsides of mod­er­ate cof­fee con­sump­tion, often linked to its high caf­feine con­tent. But a new lab study sug­gests that when it comes to brain health, cof­fee offers more than the stim­u­lat­ing effects of our favorite legal drug–in fact, decaf could be just as effec­tive [Read more…] about Mod­er­ate cof­fee con­sump­tion may pro­mote brain health — and it’s not because of caffeine

Cognitive enhancement at the edge: The US Navy tests neuro-priming and other non-pharmacological aids to boost cognition and performance

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Super SEALs: Elite Units Pur­sue Brain-Stim­u­lat­ing Tech­nolo­gies (Military.com):

“At a con­fer­ence near Wash­ing­ton, D.C., in Feb­ru­ary, the com­man­der of all Navy spe­cial oper­a­tions units made an unusu­al request to indus­try: Devel­op and demon­strate tech­nolo­gies that offer “cog­ni­tive enhance­ment” capa­bil­i­ties to boost his elite forces’ men­tal and phys­i­cal per­for­mance [Read more…] about Cog­ni­tive enhance­ment at the edge: The US Navy tests neu­ro-prim­ing and oth­er non-phar­ma­co­log­i­cal aids to boost cog­ni­tion and performance

For a good night’s rest, combine general sleep hygiene with mindful and cognitive techniques

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sleep——-

Most Sharp­Brains read­ers under­stand the ben­e­fits of stress reg­u­la­tion, and also the ben­e­fits of sleep. Rec­om­men­da­tions for sleep hygiene are well pub­li­cized. They include avoid­ing alco­hol and stim­u­lants like caf­feine; stick­ing to reg­u­lar bed and wake times (even if you don’t get enough sleep); expos­ing [Read more…] about For a good night’s rest, com­bine gen­er­al sleep hygiene with mind­ful and cog­ni­tive techniques

Does Coffee Boost Brain/ Cognitive Functions Over Time?

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A fewA_small_cup_of_coffee eter­nal questions:
— Is caf­feine good for the brain?
— Does it boost cog­ni­tive functions?
— Does it pro­tect against dementia?

There is lit­tle doubt that drink­ing that morn­ing cup of cof­fee will like­ly increase alert­ness, but the main ques­tions that research is try­ing to answer go beyond that. Basi­cal­ly: is there a sus­tained, life­time, ben­e­fit or harm from drink­ing cof­fee regularly?

The answer, so far, con­tains good news and bad news. The good news for cof­fee drinkers is that most of the long-term results are direc­tion­al­ly more pos­i­tive than neg­a­tive, so no clear harm seems to occur. The bad news is that it is not clear so far whether caf­feine has ben­e­fi­cial effects on gen­er­al brain func­tions, either short-term or long-term (aged-relat­ed decline or risks of dementia).

It is impor­tant to note that many of the stud­ies show­ing an effect of cof­fee con­sump­tion on brain func­tions or risks of demen­tia report a cor­re­la­tion or asso­ci­a­tion (they are not ran­dom­ized clin­i­cal tri­als). As you know, cor­re­la­tion doesn’t prove cau­sa­tion: cof­fee drinkers may seem to do well in a num­ber in these long-term stud­ies, but there may be oth­er rea­sons why cof­fee drinkers do better.

Q: How does caf­feine affect my brain?
A: Caf­feine is a stimulant.

It belongs to a chem­i­cal group called xan­thine. Adeno­sine is a nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring xan­thine in the brain that slows down the activ­i­ty of brain cells (neu­rons). To a neu­ron, caf­feine looks like adeno­sine. It is there­fore used by some neu­rons in place of adeno­sine. The result is that these neu­rons speed up instead of slow­ing down.

This increased neu­ronal activ­i­ty trig­gers the release of the adren­a­line hor­mone, which will affect your body [Read more…] about Does Cof­fee Boost Brain/ Cog­ni­tive Func­tions Over Time?