2 to 3 Cups of Coffee a Day May Reduce Dementia Risk. But Not if It’s Decaf.

A large long-term study found that drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day, or one to two cups of caffeinated tea, was associated with a lower risk of dementia; decaffeinated beverages did not show the same link. Researchers followed 131,821 participants for up to 43 years and observed that the advantage plateaued beyond about two and a half cups of coffee daily.

Participants came from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and completed repeated surveys on diet, health and lifestyle; 11,033 developed dementia, documented with death certificates or physician diagnoses. The analysis adjusted for many factors — health conditions, medication, diet, education, socioeconomic status, family history, body mass index, smoking and mental illness — and the correlation held regardless of genetic risk.

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