Popular Morning Drink Linked to Improved Liver Health and Reduced Alzheimer’s Risk

When it comes to liver health and reduced Alzheimer’s risk, usually the first though that pops into people’s heads isn’t coffee. Eating right and exercising may come to mind, but when you think of coffee, usually the first thing that you think of is your morning beverage. There’s nothing special about it, right? But the fact of the matter is that coffee has been shown to promote liver health and to reduce the risks of Alzheimer’s.

The Liver

The body’s largest internal organ, the liver, sits on the right side of the body. It is responsible for many things. The liver makes blood clotting factors and proteins, for instance. It produces bile and synthesizes glycogen. It also manufactures cholesterol and triglycerides. The liver also metabolizes toxins. These can include alcohol and drugs, natural substances, chemicals, and medications.

Because the liver makes and secretes chemicals, it is both an organ and a gland. Also acting as a storage unit, the liver stores many things, such as vitamins. Just like any organ in the body, the liver can get sick. Cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver, often comes from prolonged alcohol abuse. Cirrhosis can also be caused by fatty liver.

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a serious disease of the mind that causes dementia. It causes memory loss and problems with behavior and thinking. Most people who are affected by it are senior citizens. Though it sounds like a normal part of aging, it is not. Alzheimer’s starts off relatively mild, but can progress to a point where people can stop responding to conversations and external stimuli. People with this disease can literally forget who they once were and everyone around them. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s.

Coffee

Black & Decker DCM600B

Coffee was discovered in the 11 th century in Ethiopia. A popular Ethiopian story states that a goat herder discovered the plant when he found his goats frolicking in a field of the fruit. Coffee is actually a red fruit with the coffee bean in the center of it. He ate the fruit and found himself full of energy, like his goats. Upon seeing this, a monk brought some of the plant back to his monastery where he and others also spent the night awake and alert. People back then believed the plant to be magical and hold medicinal value. 

The fact of the matter is that coffee does hold some medicinal properties. In relation to this article, coffee makes a difference in liver health and Alzheimer’s disease.

More frequent drinkers of coffee have a chance to protect against cirrhosis. Not only that but coffee drinkers also may reverse some damage caused by cirrhosis. Coffee also breaks up fat, which can help break up the fatty tissue in liver, which may lead to cirrhosis.

In addition, studies have shown that people who drink coffee have a reduced rate of getting Alzheimer’s in the first place. It is unclear why. But caffeine blocks inflammation in the brain. This can help reduce the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. Drinking coffee can even delay the onset with people who already have the disease.

Caffeine also has a positive effect on a particular protein in the brain that’s linked to Alzheimer’s. Caffeine is linked to the reuptake and disentanglement of this protein. Drinkers of coffee also have better memory. Caffeine works with long term memory, by strengthening it. It also boosts overall brain function.

Type II Diabetes can lead to Alzheimer’s. Drinking coffee, even decaf, can help reduce your risk of getting Type II Diabetes. Reducing the risk of diabetes comes with its own set of rewards. However, it just happens to reduce your risk of getting Alzheimer’s as well. 

The Ethiopians seemed to have gotten it right. Coffee may not be magical, but it does have medicinal properties whether you’re drinking it for a healthier liver, or because yours isn’t so healthy and you want to make it a little bit better. Maybe you’re drinking it to stave off that feared disease, Alzheimer’s. Maybe you have another reason all together to drink this delicious beverage. In any case, it doesn’t hurt to have coffee in your back pocket protecting the largest organ in your body. And there’s nothing to be done once you have Alzheimer’s except take medications to try to slow it down. So never getting it at all is a blessing. 

If drinking some coffee may prevent Alzheimer’s, then that’s just one less thing you ever have to worry about in life. If you’re already drinking this dark, delectable drink, then keep doing it. If not, you may want to try. So if you’re the Nespresso Inissia Espresso Maker type or more of a Black & Decker DCM600B Coffee Maker type, grab your coffee maker and drink that coffee for a better life.