Coffee adversely impacts Alzheimer patients.
London, April 4: Regular intake of coffee or caffeine by patients with Alzheimer's disease may deteriorate their neuropsychiatric symptoms, including but not limited to anxiety, say researchers.
While it is well known that memory problems are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, this dementia is also characterized by neuropsychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, apathy, depression, hallucinations, paranoid, sundowning and more known as Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) which may be strongly present already in the first stages of the disorder.
The results indicate that caffeine worsened these symptoms in mice with Alzheimer's.
The researchers also discovered significant effects, especially in relation to neophobia -- a fear of everything new -- anxiety-related behaviours, and emotional and cognitive flexibility.
"The mice develop Alzheimer's disease in a very close manner to the human patients with early-onset form of the disease," said lead author Raquel Baeta-Corral from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.
"They not only exhibit the typical cognitive problems but also a number of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD)-like symptoms, so it is a valuable model to address whether the benefits of caffeine will be able to compensate its putative negative effects."
For the study, the team analyzed the effect of caffeine on normal ageing mice and familial Alzheimer’s models.
However, coffee has also been suggested as a strategy to prevent dementia, both in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in normal ageing processes, due to its action in blocking molecules - adenosine receptors - which may cause dysfunctions and diseases in old age.
But "our observations of adverse caffeine effects in an Alzheimer's disease model together with previous clinical observations suggest that an exacerbation of BPSD-like symptoms may partly interfere with the beneficial cognitive effects of caffeine", the researchers said.
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Mercury plunges in Kashmir after brief respite, Shopian freezes at minus 6.4 deg C
Srinagar (PTI): Night temperatures in Kashmir dropped several degrees below the freezing point, even as a thick layer of fog engulfed parts of the valley, with Srinagar recording a low of minus 4.1 degrees Celsius, officials said on Saturday.
Shopian was the coldest recorded place in Jammu and Kashmir as the mercury there settled at a low of minus 6.4 degrees Celsius, they said.
The mercury had on Thursday night settled above the freezing point at most places in the valley, providing huge relief to the residents from the biting cold conditions.
However, temperatures dropped across Kashmir on Friday night, bringing back the freezing cold, the officials said.
On the Friday night, the minimum temperature in Srinagar -- the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir -- settled at minus 4.1 degrees Celsius, a sharp drop from 0.4 degrees Celsius the previous night, the officials said.
The gateway town to the valley, Qazigund, recorded a low of minus 4.2 degrees Celsius, while the mercury settled at minus 3.5 degrees Celsius in north Kashmir's Kupwara, and minus 0.2 degrees Celsius in south Kashmir's Kokernag, the officials said.
Pahalgam recorded a low of minus 4.4 degrees Celsius, while Gulmarg lodged minus 2.6 degrees Celsius and Konibal town in Pulwama district recorded minus 5.2 degrees Celsius, they said.
The meteorological department said the weather would remain generally cloudy but dry on December 6-7, and a brief spell of light snowfall at isolated places in the higher reaches of north and central Kashmir is likely on December 8.
