According to recent findings from the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute reported in the online edition of Neuroscience, caffeine intake equal to five cups of coffee a day for humans protects mice against memory impairments and reduces Alzheimer's pathology in brains.

Dr. Gary Arendash, Ph.D., lead researcher of the study said:

"We wanted to test the ability of dietary caffeine intake to protect against Alzheimer's disease in a highly controlled study in Alzheimer's mice where the only variable that was different between groups was whether caffeine was in their drinking water.

We were surprised to find that Alzheimer's mice given caffeine in their drinking water throughout adult life performed much better than Alzheimer's mice not given caffeine and very similar to normal mice without the disease."

Isn't this the year for coffee? The wonders of coffee revealed this year seem unending.

In this particular study in mice, human equivalent of five cups of coffee per day (500 mg/day) not only protected the memory of mice with Alzheimer's but the levels of beta-amyloid (the brain protein of plaque believed to be the cause of Alzheimer's) were reduced.

Additionally, in aged Alzheimer's mice with already high levels of beta-amyloid, caffeine intake also resulted in lower beta- amyloid levels.

Suggesting that not only does caffeine protects from Alzheimer's, but also those living with this condition could still benefit from a moderate daily intake of caffeine.

Well that is really potentially promising, considering that this research followed an earlier study that hinted that caffeine might protect humans against Alzheimer's: a study focused on humans which found that Alzheimer's patients consumed markedly less coffee in the 20 years prior to the disease diagnosis than their counterpart without Alzheimer's disease.

The said study was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Jun Tan, Ph.D., University of South Florida College of Medicine and Dr. Ed Jackson, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Read more details from the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute or you can read the full paper (a pdf file).