Alzheimer's Disease Health Center

Drinking Coffee May Delay Alzheimer’s Disease

Coffee May Lower Alzheimer's Risk continued...

Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, reviewed the new findings for WebMD. He is the Mount Sinai chair in Alzheimer's disease research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

"There is some support for this observation," he says via email.

"There are basic science studies from our lab and from other labs showing that a substance called cyclic AMP can reduce formation of amyloid, and it is well known that caffeine elevates cyclic AMP levels."

What's more, "attention is a key component of memory, and it is well established that caffeine increases attention. Thus, it is conceivable that caffeine improves memory by virtue of its effects on memory."

But, Gandy adds, the jury is still out on how or if caffeine affects risk for Alzheimer's. "Before we can recommend any drug (even caffeine), we must test the drug in randomized clinical trials. That would be the obvious next step for the caffeine story."