Caffeine looks like it helps keep women over 65 mentally sharp — though not, alas, men.
Mental acuity tended to diminish over the 4 years of follow-up throughout the population, Ritchie’s team found. However, women who drank three or more cups of coffee per day stayed sharper, on average, than those who drank less of the brew. Ladies who downed six or more cups of regular tea per day—an amount delivering caffeine about equal to the critical coffee dose—received comparable cognitive protection, the researchers report in the Aug. 7 Neurology.
No matter how the researchers analyzed their data, they could find no evidence that heavy caffeine intake similarly benefited any of the 2,800 participating men. Although the study’s design precluded investigating the possible mechanism for a gender difference, Ritchie notes that at least one animal study published by others “suggests there’s an interaction between caffeine and the [female] sex hormones estrogen and progesterone.”
If caffeine’s protective effect works by interacting with receptors for estrogen on a women’s cells, this might explain another preliminary observation by the French team: that among heavy caffeine consumers, women over age 80 faced half the risk of significant cognitive decline during the study than ladies 65 to 80 did.
(via BoingBoing)
Given that I drink decaf (less, but not no caffeine) most of the time, this is pretty much just anecdotal, but I go after coffee a) when PMSing and b) during cramps. Even if I am on enough painkillers not to care about any potential reduction in cramping.
Also, chocolate.