There are over 1,000 active substances in coffee beans. Thankfully some of them are good for the brain. Caffeine and other substances in coffee have been studied and found to be helpful for brain health.
Parkinson's disease is a neurological condition that may lead to disorders of movement and coordination. This neurodegenerative disease has been extensively studied and may be related to certain genes or caused by environmental factors such as exposure to certain chemicals like pesticides and herbicides. Several studies report that drinking coffee may aid to prevent the risk of Parkinson's disease or help to relieve some of the symptoms of the disease if it is already present. Coffee will not prevent Parkinson's disease in everyone but it could help to decrease the risk in some.
In one study men who drank more coffee and other caffeinated beverages had a lower risk of Parkinson's disease than those who did not consume as much. For women the lowest risk was found in those who drank from one to three cups of coffee a day. However, in general women did not experience as great a decreased risk as men and this was thought to be related to an estrogen effect. Also caffeine was not found to increase the tremor of the disease. There was some protective effect with decaffeinated coffee, but decaf did not decrease the risk of Parkinson's disease as much as regular coffee.
In one study coffee lessened the tremor in men who had never taken specific medication for the disease. This was not found to be the case for women. Caffeine may help to prevent the loss of brain cells that make dopamine.
The dosage of levodopa, a medication used to treat Parkinson's disease, may be enhanced by coffee consumption and higher doses of levodopa may not be necessary in coffee drinkers.
Now for the latest news. A compound found in discarded coffee grounds may help to protect the brain against Parkinson's disease. Researchers working in a lab at the University of Texas at El Paso baked used coffee grounds at 200 degrees for four hours. This produced Caffeic Acid Carbon Quantum Dots/CACQD. All of these studies were preformed in test tubes and not yet on humans. However CACQDs were found to be protective in the experiments where the conditions of neurodegenerative disease were caused by environmental conditions such as exposure to the herbicide paraquat.
CACQDs removed harmful free radicals from the test tubes. It was then thought that these "green chemicals" in coffee grounds could be helpful for humans, perhaps for those cases related to environmental chemicals such as paraquat exposure.
Caffeic acid is an antioxidant found in wine, apples and – of course – coffee. It can then be given a boost in the lab and transformed into CACQD. This nano particle has electromagnetic properties that are favorable which assist the CACQDs. This makes it easier for these antioxidants to cross the blood-brain barrier and then mop up free radicals.
A nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter and CACQDs are only a few nanometers across. It is now possible that discarded coffee grounds can become "green chemicals," which may soon be used to help treat Parkinson's disease.
