Health Watch: Caffeine & Memory

We love the taste, we love the perk -- now we can love caffeine for one more reason: A memory boost. A few years ago, researchers in Austria found that caffeine improved the short-term recall in participants. Subjects were given either 100mg of caffeine or a placebo, then they were given MRIs and asked to recall a series of numbers shown to them shortly before. The scans showed more activity in the areas related to attention and short-term memory in participants who had the caffeine dose instead of the placebo. In another study, researchers found that caffeine may assist in memory attention and cognitive ability in women over the age of 65. While it doesn't stave off the development of dementia, it does appear to slow down the process. In fact, the improvement got significantly better with age: Coffee drinkers were 30% less likely to have a decline in memory at the age of 65 and 70% less likely over the age of 80!