We all love drinking coffee or tea as we start our day. Some people cannot even function without their morning ‘cup of joe.’?
However, in case you’re one of the many who drink a ton of coffee every day, you might want to cut down on it a little as it is causing some serious effects in your brain.?
Researchers have discovered that regular caffeine intake reduces the volume of grey matter in the brain. The study suggests that this could have effects on our information processing abilities.
Dr Carolin Reichert at the University of Basel and her team gave 20 young volunteers three 150 milligrams servings of caffeine (in the form of a capsule) in a day (similar to five small cups of brewed coffee or seven cups of espressos) for ten days. They were asked to not consume any more caffeine during the day.?
During another 10 day period, volunteers were offered placebo tablets with similar dosage, consisting of no active ingredients. At teh end of each 10 day period, the researchers looked at the brains of the volunteers through brain scans -- particularly looking for grey matter.
They also looked at how well the volunteers slept with the help of an EEG (electroencephalography) -- a testing method to understand electrical activity in the brain.?
Researchers saw a considerable change in the amount of grey matter. However, what was astonishing is that it didn’t result in poor sleep cycles. Moreover, the volume of grey matter was greater after offering 10 days of placebo compared to consuming caffeine for 10 days.?
Researchers thus came to the conclusion that even though caffeine reduced the volume of grey matter, just 10 days of abstinence from caffeine significantly regenerated the grey matter.
Dr Carolin Reichert explains, “Our results do not necessarily mean that caffeine consumption has a negative impact on the brain. But daily caffeine consumption evidently affects our cognitive hardware, which in itself should give rise to further studies.”
She added, “The changes in brain morphology seem to be temporary, but systematic comparisons between coffee drinkers and those who usually consume little or no caffeine have so far been lacking.”