Moderate coffee and tea consumption may help protect people with high blood pressure from developing dementia, according to a major new study.
Published Sept. 10 in Nature’s Scientific Reports, the study followed a cohort of more than 450,000 participants with documented hypertension from the UK Biobank, applying Cox proportional risk modeling.
The study follows a 2021 study that found decreased dementia risk among all coffee and tea drinkers, as well as another study that same year that linked heavy coffee consumption with increased dementia risk.
Led by a team at Ningxia Medical University in Yinchuan, China, the study relies on the premise that people with hypertension are at significantly higher risk to develop dementia.
The study also found that “the statistically significant association between coffee and tea consumption and the risk of dementia was more likely to [be] found in people with hypertension than in people without hypertension.”
Among people with hypertension, the study showed a U-shaped association between caffeinated coffee and tea consumption and dementia risk, meaning moderate consumption showed protective effects, while heavy consumption showed little or no protective effect.
As with many studies based on past clinical observations, the study relied on self-reporting of consumption, with no clear definitions of what constitutes a “cup” of coffee. The study also did not define what constitutes “moderate” or “heavy” consumption.
However the study did break out caffeine consumption by type, noting categories of “ground coffee,” instant coffee and decaf. Moderate consumption of caffeinated ground coffee was found to have the greatest protective effect, followed by instant coffee. Decaffeinated coffee showed relatively little protective effect.
“One possible reason is that coffee and tea ingredients, such as caffeine, may reduce the risk of dementia by decreasing neuroinflammation or providing neuroprotective benefits,” the study states. “However, excessive drinking of coffee and tea will lead to a large amount of caffeine intake in the body, disturb sleep patterns, and diminish internal antioxidant effects in the body.”
Here is the complete study: “Association between coffee and tea consumption and the risk of dementia in individuals with hypertension: a prospective cohort study.”
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