According to researchers, consumption of coffee, tea, or both is linked to a decreased risk of dementia or stroke.
However the findings did not show that coffee and tea directly caused said reduction in risk and scientists will need to further investigate the true nature of the link. Researchers have examined the nexuses between coffee, tea, stroke, and dementia before, however “considerable controversy” persists, informed the authors of the recent study.
“Not enough is known about the correlation between tea, coffee and the risk posed by stroke, dementia and poststroke dementia”, they added.
Dementia is an umbrella term for a collection of various symptoms categorized by progressive cognitive decline, mainly affecting older people. Over 55 million people around the world suffer from dementia and it is the seventh leading cause of death worldwide, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlighted Alzheimer’s disease as the most common type of dementia. CDC also maintains stroke as a leading cause of mortality with more than 795,000 people experiencing strokes annually.
The authors of the current research documented that while some studies had shown that drinking more tea or coffee reduced dementia risk, there is little research that considers a combination of the two to be related with the same effect.
Thus, the researchers piloted a study regarding the association between dementia, stroke risk and the consumption of tea, coffee, and a combination of the two.
They built upon the data provided by the U.K. Biobank, a database containing detailed medical and genetic information and recruited 365,682 participants. The participants would self report their tea/coffee intake per days and researchers followed their medical records until 2020. The researchers then observed how many participants experienced stroke or dementia symptoms
During the study duration, 5,079 participants developed dementia and 10,053 had a stroke.
They reported that individuals who consumed 2–3 cups of coffee a day, 3–5 cups of tea a day, or 4–6 cups of tea and coffee daily showcased the lowest risk of dementia and stroke.
Those who drank 2–3 cups of coffee and 2–3 cups of tea daily were 32% less likely to suffer a stroke and 28% less likely to develop dementia in comparison to participants who did not drink tea or coffee.
This study was published in the Public Library Of Science Medicine journal.