Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is a psychiatric pathology for which diagnosis has increased exponentially over the last 20 years.
Despite these high incidence rates, controversy surrounds the treatment of this pathology and the therapeutic approach to it.
A new study from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya found caffeine can be used to alleviate some of the symptoms of ADHD.
The team found that a prescribed consumption of caffeine can increase attention and retention capacity in adolescents and adults suffering from this psychiatric disorder.
The study is published in the journal Nutrients and was conducted by Javier Vázquez et al.
According to the authors, this is the first systematic review that has been carried out, including at the cellular level.
The results link caffeine consumption in different animal models of ADHD with an increased attention span, improved concentration, learning benefits, and improvements in some types of memory.
This substance improves these types of cognitive procedures and increases capacity and flexibility in both spatial attention and selective attention, as well as in working memory and short-term memory.
In addition, this substance doesn’t alter blood pressure, and doesn’t lead to an increase or reduction in body weight.
These benefits therefore clearly indicate that caffeine may be a therapy indicated for the treatment of ADHD.
As it is a highly infantile or juvenile pathology, treatments that require an intense level of medication to alleviate the symptoms of ADHD are therefore subject to considerable controversy, both among many families and in some areas of medicine.
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Previous research has shown that drinking coffee has several health benefits.
In a study from Semmelweis University, researchers found up to three cups of coffee per day is linked to a lower risk of stroke and fatal heart disease.
They found that regular coffee consumption is safe, as even high daily intake was not linked to adverse heart outcomes and death after a follow-up of 10 to 15 years.
Moreover, 0.5 to 3 cups of coffee per day was strongly linked to lower risks of stroke, death from heart disease, and death from any cause.
Even though coffee is among the most consumed beverages in the world, little is known about the long-term impact of regular consumption on cardiovascular health.
In the study, the team examined the association between usual coffee intake and incident heart attack, stroke and death.
They included 468,629 participants of the UK Biobank with no signs of heart disease at the time of recruitment. The average age was 56.2 years and 55.8% were women.
Participants were divided into three groups according to their usual coffee intake: none (did not consume coffee on a regular basis, 22.1%), light-to-moderate (0.5 to 3 cups/day, 58.4%) and high (more than 3 cups/day, 19.5%).
The researchers found compared to non-coffee drinkers, light-to-moderate consumption was linked to a 12% lower risk of all-cause death, 17% lower risk of death from heart disease, and 21% lower risk of stroke.
They also used data from 30,650 participants who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is considered the gold standard for the assessment of cardiac structure and function.
They found that compared with participants who did not drink coffee regularly, daily consumers had healthier sized and better functioning hearts. This was consistent with reversing the detrimental effects of aging on the heart.
These findings suggest that coffee consumption of up to 3 cups per day is linked to favorable cardiovascular outcomes.
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If you care about coffee, please read studies that vegetables and coffee may protect against COVID-19, and drinking coffee this way can help prevent stroke, heart disease.
For more information about coffee, please see recent studies about why you drink black coffee, and results showing a coffee or tea break could help protect your liver health.
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