

Caffeine is good for your brain - rfrey
http://www.physorg.com/news193317154.html

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gjm11
This is all about an issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease that's
dedicated to "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer's Disease
and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders".

You can find the whole issue online here:
<http://iospress.metapress.com/content/t13614762731/>

This special issue arose from a meeting held in Lisbon, in July 2009, on
"Caffeine and the Brain".

The meeting, and this special issue of the journal, were sponsored by the
_Associado Industrial e Comercial do Cafe_ : the Industrial and Commercial
Coffee Association.

It is claimed that this organization "generously financed both the meeting and
this special issue while leaving full scientific independence to all
contributors". Even if that's perfectly true, I suggest that there might be
just a teeny bit of selection bias in the papers in this issue of the journal.

[EDITED to add: of course there is no mention of the sponsorship in the
PhysOrg article. Why is it that every single time I see a PhysOrg link on HN
there's something rather wrong with it?]

~~~
rfrey
Thanks for pointing that out - I did a cursory look for obvious industry
connections and didn't see it. I should have looked harder!

It's important to be aware of where the money is coming from. That said, the
journal _is_ peer reviewed, and this sort of sponsorship is not uncommon for
either journals or conferences. One would dismiss a wide swath of research if
one concentrated more on funding sources than quality of data. (Not that you
were doing that, just sayin'.)

------
awt
\-- Personal Experience Only Disclaimer --

Caffeine has always caused me to have a heightened level of anxiety that lasts
much longer than initial high. My recommendation is that you should sleep when
you are tired. I like to take a nap in my car during lunch.

~~~
lallysingh
Caffeine helps with really boring work. I just make sure I've got 6 hours
before I plan to sleep.

Unrelated, but: <http://theoatmeal.com/comics/caffeine>

~~~
nopassrecover
Yeah, mild levels of caffeine (<200-300mg for me I'm guessing) give me a
barely noticeable but consistent boost. Anything more and I avoid lethargy but
i also sacrifice attention which has its own pros/cons including the ability
to enjoy repetitive but boring work.

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ssn
But bad for your stomach. :-/

~~~
proee
Try espresso, it has less acid than coffee. If you still want a coffee style
drink then go for an americano (espresso + water)

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des47
Its hard to know what to make of these studies that show how a substance that
is harmful/poison might be good in the long run. Like wine and heart disease:
Should we all really add a glass of red wine to our daily diet?

~~~
chc
Few substances are innately and incontrovertibly harmful or helpful. Even
water can be deadly if you drink enough, to say nothing of what happens if you
just hold your face in it for a few minutes — are you surprised by studies
showing that 2 liters of water a day are good for you too? Iron is very
poisonous too, but it's widely known as an essential nutrient. Ditto for some
vitamins.

~~~
thribbler
I agree. The problem with these kind of studies is that they aren't coming up
with explanations and then trying to test them; they're simply looking for
correlations, which advances knowledge not one jot.

In the case of caffeine I suspect the main benefit is that drinkers of tea and
coffee eat less food, and rich food damages the blood vessels of the brain (as
it does to the heart).

~~~
metamemetics
In the case of alzheimer's, the benefit is most likely from the fact Caffeine
is a stimulant that affects the acetylcholine system.

In that sense it is similar to nicotine, and NON-smokers are 50% more likely
to develop alzheimer's (controlling for increased mortality).

One current alzheimer's medication is Galantamine (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galantamine> ), which also increases
acetylcholine levels and nicotinic acetylcholine receptor activity
specifically.

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rms
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/1w1/coffee_when_it_helps_when_it_hur...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/1w1/coffee_when_it_helps_when_it_hurts/)

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softbuilder
s/caffeine/meth/

Same argument and every bit as delusional.

