THE ANITOXIDANTS ADVANTAGE

Coffee beans contain more antioxidants per serving than some highly-touted super foods, like blueberries, pushing coffee to the top of the list for antioxidant levels. The antioxidant in coffee beans is called chlorogenic acid, which is related to the antioxidants found in grapes.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people over 65 who drank four or more caffeinated beverages per day had a 53 percent lower risk of heart disease than non-coffee-drinkers.

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DRINKING COFFEE SEEMS TO PROTECT THE LIVER

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Data from 10 studies conducted in Europe and Japan suggest that people who drink coffee may be reducing their risk of liver cancer, although the reasons for the apparent protective effect of coffee remain to be determined.

The 10 studies reviewed by Dr. Francesca Bravi from Milan's Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri" and colleagues included 2,260 cases of HCC. Collectively, the results showed a 41 percent reduction in the risk of liver cancer (or hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) among coffee drinkers compared to those who never drank coffee.

Low to moderate coffee drinkers -- defined in some studies as those who drank less than 3 cups per day and in others as less than 1 cup per day -- had a 30 percent lower risk of HCC compared to coffee abstainers. High coffee consumption -- defined in some studies as 3 cups or more each day and in others as 1 cup or more per day - had a 55 percent lower risk of HCC.

"Moreover, the apparent favorable effect of coffee drinking was found both in studies from southern Europe, where coffee is widely consumed, and from Japan, where coffee consumption is less frequent, and in subjects with chronic liver diseases," the researchers note in their report in the medical journal Hepatology.

Animal and laboratory studies have suggested that certain compounds in coffee may block harmful enzymes involved in the development of cancer.

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DOES CAFFEINE PERK UP MEMORY?

Trying to cut down on your coffee consumption, ladies? Well if you're of a certain age, you might want to reconsider. A new study from France found that women—especially those 65 and over—who reported drinking three-plus cups of java daily did better on memory tests than compeers who drank one or fewer cups a day.

"Caffeine is a psychostimulant which appears to reduce cognitive decline in women," study author Karen Ritchie of INSERM, the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Montpellier, France, said in a statement.

Scientists tested 7,000 people over four years; they adjusted for other factors that might affect memory such as age, education, depression, medication and chronic illness. Their findings, published in the new issue of Neurology: Women who drank over three cups of Joe a day were less likely to experience as much memory decline as those who downed a cup or less. And benefits seemed to increase with age: the mega–coffee drinkers were 30 percent less likely to suffer memory loss at age 65 and 70 percent less likely over age 80 than non–coffee drinkers.

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CAFFEINE MAY BLOCK HIGH CHOLESTEROL LINKED TO ALZHEIMERS

WEDNESDAY, April 9 (HealthDay News) -- A little caffeine every day could offer some protection from Alzheimer's disease for people with high cholesterol.

Rabbits given the daily caffeine equivalent of one cup of coffee and fed a cholesterol-rich diet for 12 weeks suffered relatively little damage in their blood-brain barrier (BBB), which protects the central nervous system from the rest of the body's circulation, new research found.

The findings were published in the open-access publication Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Previous studies have shown that high levels of cholesterol break down the BBB, exposing the central nervous system to damage from blood-borne contamination. BBB leakage occurs in a variety of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

"High levels of cholesterol are a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, perhaps by compromising the protective nature of the blood-brain barrier. For the first time, we have shown that chronic ingestion of caffeine protects the BBB from cholesterol-induced leakage," Jonathan Geiger, of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said in a prepared statement.

Caffeine appears to offer protection by helping proteins maintain the tight binding of the cells in the BBB, so they stop unwanted molecules from entering the central nervous system.

The findings also confirm previous studies showing that caffeine protects against memory loss in aging and in Alzheimer's disease.

"Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug, and its ability to stabilize the blood-brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders," Geiger said.

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