Dementia, which globally effected over 50 million people in 2019, is characterized by a progressive and unrelenting deterioration of mental capacity – compromising everyday activities.
Dementia is a symptom of underlying brain degeneration caused by vascular disease or traumatic brain injury, such as from accidents or contact sports like American football, brain tumors, and the list goes on.
Dementia is classified into two distinct areas: Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia. Since a stroke doubles the risk of developing dementia, it’s estimated that more than a third of the dementia cases could be prevented by reducing the risk to a stroke.
According to research – Consumption of Coffee and Tea and the Risk of developing Stroke, Dementia, and Post-Stroke Dementia: A Cohort Study, which appeared in December 2021, in the open access, peer-reviewed journal Plos Medicine, “epidemiological and clinical studies have shown the benefits of coffee and tea separately in preventing dementia. However, little is known about the association between the combination of coffee and tea and the risk of dementia.”
Chinese researchers sought to investigate the associations of coffee and tea separately and in combination with the risk of developing stroke, dementia, and poststroke dementia, based on data from a large population-based cohort – the UK, a population-based cohort study that recruited more than 500,000 participants (39 to 74 years old), who attended 1 of the 22 assessment centers across the UK between 2006 and 2010.
365, 682 participants reported their coffee and tea consumption. The researchers determined that, “coffee intake of 2 to 3 cups/day or tea intake of 3 to 5 cups/day, or their combination intake of 4 to 6 cups/day were linked with the lowest hazard ratio (HR) of incident stroke and dementia.”
It was also determined that consuming 2 to 3 cups of coffee with 2 to 3 cups of tea daily were associated with a 32% lower risk of stroke and a 28% lower risk of dementia – with the intake of coffee alone or in combination with tea being associated with lower risk of poststroke dementia.
The Chinese investigators concluded that, “our findings support an association between moderate coffee and tea consumption and risk of stroke and dementia. However, whether the provision of such information can improve stroke and dementia outcomes remains to be determined.”