“Does caffeine intake protect from Alzheimer’s disease?” One study [abstract provided] says that it just might:
Using a logistic regression model, caffeine exposure during this period was found to be significantly inversely associated with AD (odds ratio=0.40, 95% confidence interval=0.25-0.67), whereas hypertension, diabetes, stroke, head trauma, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, vitamin E, gastric disorders, heart disease, education and family history of dementia were not statistically significantly associated with AD. Caffeine intake was associated with a significantly lower risk for AD, independently of other possible confounding variables. These results, if confirmed with future prospective studies, may have a major impact on the prevention of AD.
I have no idea what any of that means, specifically — but I do know this: I’ll see your soda tax, Nannystate. And I’ll raise you one “go shove this up your greedy, paternalistic coffer hole…”
[via Faisal]
First we heard that chocolate contains beneficial anti-oxidants. Then we heard the same about beer. Then that study came out (was it last week?) claiming that because calcium can help you lose weight, ice cream isn’t necessarily detrimental to a diet. Now this.
I wish I’d saved that long-ago Pluggers cartoon (by the late, lamented Jeff MacNelly) showing a truck-driving bear at a diner, reading a newspaper with the headline SCIENTISTS NOW SAY DOUGHNUTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU!, and declaring, “I knew it.”