Drinking coffee can change your brain structure

 Drinking coffee can change your brain structure

Regular caffeine intake can reduce the volume of gray matter in the brain, suggesting that coffee intake can impair information processing, according to a new study.

Swiss researchers gave volunteers three 150 mg of caffeine a day for 10 days. That's the equivalent of about 4-5 small cups of filter coffee or six or seven espresso per day. As a result, they found a reduction in gray matter, which is mostly found in the outermost layer of the brain, or cortex, and serves to process information.

This reduction was particularly striking and noticeable in the right medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, a region of the brain required for memory consolidation. However, the effect seemed temporary and only 10 days without caffeine could turn things around.

“Our results do not mean that caffeine consumption has a negative effect on the brain,” said Dr Carolin Reichert of the University of Basel. But daily caffeine consumption clearly affects our cognitive equipment. " said.

THE TARGET IS FINDING THE EFFECT OF EVENING COFFEE ON SLEEP

The main purpose of this study was to measure the effect of coffee drunk in the evening on sleep. They investigated the sleep quality of the participants using electrodes placed on the scalp using electroencephalography (EEG), a method of recording the electrical activity of the brain.

For the experiments, a group of 20 healthy young people who regularly drink coffee every day participated in the study. The subjects were given three 150 mg caffeine tablets a day to exceed a ten-day period and were asked not to consume any other caffeine during this time.

Surprisingly, the caffeine consumed as part of the study did not cause insomnia, although the researchers observed changes in gray matter in the brain.

The study has been published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

In more studies on coffee this week, Australian experts found that long-term, heavy coffee consumption (six or more cups a day) could increase the amount of fat in the blood.

While several studies of the health effects of coffee and caffeine are drawn in different directions, study researchers caution that this increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).