If you follow my blog, you already know I’m a big fan of coffee.
Yes I love how it tastes… but I also love the benefits that have been medically proven. I’ve blogged about a few of them in the past…
Coffee has been shown to (click to read more on each topic):
decrease your risk of diabetes
protect your heart
prevent dementia
reduce incidence of skin cancer
and even boost memory!
Today’s uplifting healing report from the medical literature highlights yet another way that coffee may be serving your brain… by protecting against multiple sclerosis.
The study details:
- According to research presented at the 67th American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting just a few weeks go in April, 2015, drinking coffee may significantly reduce your risk for multiple sclerosis (MS) based on two large studies, one conducted in Europe and one in the US.
- Because caffeine intake has been previously shown to reduce Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, researches wanted to look at any potential protective benefits on MS.
- The two studies looked at over 6,000 people (2,700+ patients with MS and 3,900+ patients without MS) and looked at coffee consumption several years prior to the onset of MS symptoms and in matched patients who did not develop MS.
Here’s what they found:
- Drinking 4 or more cups of coffee a day (in the US study) or 6 + cups of coffee a day (in the Swedish cohort) for one year was enough to slash MS risk by over a third… even after adjusting for other factors such as sex, age, smoking history, weight, sun exposure, and more.
- Because this result was independently verified in two different populations, in two different studies, in two different countries, and the magnitude of the significance of the results were matched between the two studies, these results are considered strong, impressive and solid.
- The mechanism of action is yet unknown, but caffeine has already been shown to impact the brain’s immune cells (microglia) so it is possibly through immune modulation or other protective pathways.
- Coffee has been shown to be neuroprotective in many leading diseases of the brain, including Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and now… Multiple Sclerosis.
- There may even be a role for the benefit of coffee in treating MS, as these results compliment a recently released report that found higher coffee consumption, a regular intake of fish, and a regular intake of alcohol may actually delay disease progression in patients with relapsing-onset Multiple Sclerosis.
So today, enjoy that cup of coffee and feel good about the brain boosting benefits that it provides.
As always, I’ll keep scouring the medical literature to find uplifting, positive, holistic information based in scientific fact that you can feel good about implementing… and today I’ll be doing that with a mug of hot coffee in my hand.