Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1405079
48 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 4, 2021 (August / September) F By Bethany Haye or the past nine years, September has been designated World Alzheimer's Month by Alzheimer's Disease International - in case you missed Alzheim- er's and Brain Awareness Month in June or want to get ahead of Alzheimer's Awareness Month in November. Not exactly something to set off fireworks over, but it's related to a positive trend, the fact that all over the world, people are living longer. Which means a larger proportion of the earth's population is over 70 and that means that age-related diseases are increasing, notably dementia, most of it Alzheimer's. The percentage of the world's senior population living with Alzheimer's is growing, very unevenly from one country to another - in Japan for example, only 7% of 75-79 year olds have some form of cognitive decline, while in Finland the proportion is over 33%. In the US, 10% of people over 65 and 33% of those over 85 are afflicted with Alzheimer's and the worldwide total is 56 million. So, Alzheimer's is a big deal, socially and economically, plus it's a terrible trauma for families. But even within that scenario, there's good news. According to a ton of academic and industry studies (over 19,000 so far) there's an easy route to preventing or at least slowing down cognitive decline, and it's as simple as drinking 3-5 cups of coffee a day. Caveat: you must start during the loosely defined period known as "middle age." If that sounds like your age group, start upping your coffee consumption now because research shows the disease starts in the brain 20 years before any symptoms appear. Alzheimer's is caused by an accumulation and eventual glomming together of amyloid proteins, which build up over time with all the normal metabolic processes of life, Coffee and Health: The Advantages of Coffee Brain Discovered in 1932, chlorogenic acids (CGA) represent a large family of esterified compounds present in green and roasted coffee. During roasting, CGA's slowly decompose to form caffeic and quinic acid with about 50% of the original CGA being destroyed in a medium roast. Chlorogenic Acid