So far there are only vague references to a salutary effect of caffeine against Alzheimer's disease: But now U.S. researchers demonstrated the first time in animal studies that caffeine is not just a memory loss in Alzheimer's disease stopped, but the process of forgetting is even reversed themselves.

U.S. researchers have made in tests on mice found that the caffeine in a memory loss Alzheimer's disease stops. Even already problems with the memory capability allow scientists to use caffeine undone.

A Portuguese study had several years ago showed that people with Alzheimer's disease in the last 20 years of her life had consumed less caffeine than those who did not have the disease. So far there are hardly evidence of a protective effect of caffeine against Alzheimer's. Scientists around Huntington Potter from Tampa now, therefore, investigated in a controlled study the effect of caffeine on the so-called Alzheimer's mice. These animals are genetically modified, so that they develop a similar memory loss such as people with Alzheimer's.

The studies showed that caffeine memory loss in Alzheimer's mice to prevent and even undo it, if they already have occurred. The dose of caffeine, the mice with drinking water to be made, equal to five cups of coffee a day - a lot of people is relatively unproblematic.

The researchers also tested whether caffeine in healthy mice, the increased memory performance - it would be the fact, it could improve the memory performance of Alzheimer's mice to known effects of caffeine, such as due to increased vigilance. Healthy mice, which throughout their lives were given caffeine but had no better aged memory than mice, they do not have. Caffeine seemed to benefit only those mice which suffered from Alzheimer's symptoms, says Gary Arendash, co-author of one of the two studies.

The results seem to provide evidence to suggest that the caffeine concentration of the so-called beta-amyloid protein or Abeta reduced, both in blood as well as in the brain to find it. Improper folding of the Abeta protein is a primary factor for the development of Alzheimer's. In the brains of those affected, it forms deposits that the memory regions after destroying it. Due to the lower concentration of Abeta-protein would be less unwanted debris, the report Scientist. It now want the results to use in clinical trials to test whether caffeine in people with mild memory loss or early Alzheimer's symptoms, the disease process to slow down or even stops .