Stop eating and drink lots of wine and coffee. New studies say it may be good for your noodle.

by Mike Kravinsky

This week two medical studies have hit the Nextnik radar. One is about what you don't eat, the others are about what you do drink, and how all of this affects your brain. First, red wine, it's medicinal, so drink up. 

60 Minutes just aired an old story about the French Paradox, how the French eat all sorts of fatty food but that people there have low overall heart related problems. Everyone thinks it's the wine. They included some new facts that had me running into the kitchen to pop another bottle of 3 buck Chuck.

Now from Sweden, a study has been released that indicate that coffee drinkers appear to decrease their chance of getting dementia.  

Swedish and Danish researchers at the Karolinska Institute found that the people in their study who drank 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day, had a 65 percent less chance of developing dementia when compared to people who drank 2 cups or less. The survey of the participants went on for 21 years. 

The lead researcher, Mila Kivipelto, notes that, "Given the large amount of coffee consumption globally, the results might have important implications for the prevention of or delaying the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's. The finding needs to be confirmed by other studies, but it opens the possibility that dietary interventions could modify the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's."

Now let's go over to Germany. Researchers there have found that cutting calories by a third may improve memory. Fifty elderly volunteers had calorie restricted diets and within 3 months showed significant improvement in their memory.  "Our study may help to generate novel prevention strategies to maintain cognitive functions into old age," says Dr. A. Veronica Witte of the University of Munster who posted her findings in the latest issue of  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The testing was broken up into three groups whose average age was 60. Group 1 had a diet that a third of their calories were restricted. Group 2 had a diet that increased their unsatuated fatty acid by 20%, similar to eating a lot of fish and olive oil. The third group had no change.  After 3 months the calorie restricted group performed 20% better in verbal memory scores. Witte and her colleagues note that calorie restricted diets seem to keep brain cells in better health. "To our knowledge, the current results provide the first experimental evidence in humans that caloric restriction improves memory in the elderly, said Witte. 

So, what will you do? A big meal and forget stuff, or be hungry and remember everything.  

I'm looking forward to the study that I hope they'll will release next week,  little chocolate doughnuts are essential to good health.

(Photo of coffee guy by flickr user Qole Pejorian used under a Creative Commons license.)