Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

tandfonline.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 142 posts

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#121

Post by MadcapJake »

jijijijij wrote: post #118
yaomingite wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anecdotally, I've seen this a lot with adults with undiagnosed ADHD (including myself until 26). Caffeine can be a (very shitty) alternative to proper stimulant medication that people don't realise they actually need because of a medical issue. So the end up drinking 4-5 coffees a day instead. ADHD medication is among the hardest to get in the first place, and to maintain in many places. I was diagnosed as a child,…

To add: At least for methylphenidate, there are several studies showing neuronal long term improvements, "brain normalisation", in people with ADHD. That's rare in psychopharmacology... I do understand hesitation about immediate release amphetamine, but the retarded formulations are also quite hard to abuse. If you do more than prescribed, you won't get high, you will have a bad time. "Getting high", requires a sudde…

Especially considering how difficult it often is for ADHD people to follow through on subsequent visits.

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#122

Post by JohnBooty »

whizzter wrote: post #14
llamaLord wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the very early effects of dementia start to impact people sometimes decades before it becomes bad enough that they are diagnosed, it's certainly possible that extreme coffee consumption is some kind of self-medication mechanism. Anecdotally, I've seen this a lot with adults with undiagnosed ADHD (including myself until 26). Caffeine can be a (very shitty) alternative to proper stimulant medication that pe…

Not far fetched at all, seems there's been studies showing a correlation between ADHD and Dementia between genrations. A big question for me is if the ADHD was always even in the older generations there but was non-diagnosed? https://news.ki.se/link-between-adhd-and-dementia-across-gen...

Everything was diagnosed far less often in older generations, right?

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#123

Post by jijijijij »

david_shi wrote: post #89
b800h wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 20% incidence in general, highest in Asian (Indian etc) communities - not completely correlated with melanin.

A bit of a sidenote, but I find it fascinating how little vitamin deficiencies are accounted for in allopathic medical contexts. Deficiencies seem like such a frequent occurrence but most patients end up needing to self-medicate.

What are you talking about? Especially vitamin D is researched to death. You think scientists are stupid? If there is a incidence difference along the north-south axis, it's the first hypothesis investigated.

Thing is, intervention usually doesn't prove very effective. That's why doctors aren't that hysterical about it.

Then some vitamin supplement studies have shown actually harmful, eg. vitamin A as antioxidant. Vitamin D is a hormone and regulates many processes in the body, e.g. a large dose suppresses the immune system similar to steroids... caution is definitely warranted, instead of blanket recommendations of the "Just take 5000IU/d! #YOLO" you find online frequently.

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#124

Post by JohnBooty »

CorrectHorseBat wrote: post #113
elzbardico wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There are billions being made with vitamins

The vitamin/supplements industry makes billions while the pharma industry makes trillions.

The pharma industry is financially shaped around big "hit" patented medications that rake in megaprofits. They are literally too big to play in the vitamin-selling market.

It's kind of like how you and I might be able to spin up a profitable SaaS or other project that pulls in a few hundred grand or even a few million per year. A nice sum! Meanwhile, FAANG companies can't even consider such projects. They are not going to keep the lights on by pursuing 100,000 different niche projects that each make $100,000 profit per year. That would still only be 20% of their current revenue.

The big pharma companies shape how things are done. They fund the studies, they have direct access to doctors, etc.

In terms of actual influence the supplement industry might as well not even exist, just like our theoretical SaaS would have zero industry influence.

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#125

Post by jijijijij »

MadcapJake wrote: post #121
jijijijij wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add: At least for methylphenidate, there are several studies showing neuronal long term improvements, "brain normalisation", in people with ADHD. That's rare in psychopharmacology... I do understand hesitation about immediate release amphetamine, but the retarded formulations are also quite hard to abuse. If you do more than prescribed, you won't get high, you will have a bad time. "Getting high", requires a sudde…

Especially considering how difficult it often is for ADHD people to follow through on subsequent visits.

True. That's a whole nother can of worms. You often only get something like 30 days worth of pills per prescription before you have to visit your doctor again. For someone with poor time and tasks management, those 2-3 hours lost (and adding the "resources" spent on mental overhead/stress/anxiety), are actually a significant burden.

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#126

Post by everdrive »

ChrisLTD wrote: post #112
everdrive wrote: post #41

Is this just related to caffeine, or coffee in general? I drink a LOT of decaf, which probably ends up being 2-4 cups of "real" coffee.

Decaf has less than 10% the caffeine of regular coffee, if I recall correctly. Are you drinking 20 cups of decaf a day?

I'm not sure. I have 2-4 of those standard re-usable "to-go" mugs day. Which is probably (hopefully) less than 20!

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#127

Post by mantra2 »

dewert wrote: post #78
mantra2 wrote: post #77

I drink about 8-10 cups of black coffee a day, which is what my brewer makes. I don’t have any issues with sleep but I don’t feel any sort of boost from it, I just enjoy the way it tastes. I’m curious how consistent this can be seeing as coffee can be made so differently. I know the coffee I make at home is incredibly weak compared to what you’d get at a cafe. I use about 2-3 tablespoons of freshly ground beans for t…

Sorry, I have to get clarification - do you use 2-3 tbsp per cup, as in 20-30 tbsp for the pot, or 2-3 tbsp for the whole pot? The one sounds like normal coffee, while the other would almost be water in my books.

I use 2-3, maybe 4 for the 8 cup brewer. I drink it weak. lol

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#128

Post by klyrs »

JohnBooty wrote: post #122
whizzter wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not far fetched at all, seems there's been studies showing a correlation between ADHD and Dementia between genrations. A big question for me is if the ADHD was always even in the older generations there but was non-diagnosed? https://news.ki.se/link-between-adhd-and-dementia-across-gen...

Everything was diagnosed far less often in older generations, right?

Not so!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#129

Post by CorrectHorseBat »

JohnBooty wrote: post #124
CorrectHorseBat wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are billions being made with vitamins

The vitamin/supplements industry makes billions while the pharma industry makes trillions. The pharma industry is financially shaped around big "hit" patented medications that rake in megaprofits. They are literally too big to play in the vitamin-selling market. It's kind of like how you and I might be able to spin up a profitable SaaS or other project that pulls in a few hundred grand or even a few million per year.…

I believe you're completely wrong here.

A quick search tells me the markets are much closer than that. R&D cost is lower and regulation isn't as strict so I wouldn't be surprised if selling vitamins is the more lucrative business. The pharma companies haven't missed this and they are also in the business.

Re: High coffee consumption, brain volume and risk of dementia and stroke

#130

Post by Kirby64 »

stubish wrote: post #84
Kirby64 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per the article, "Habitual coffee intake was self-reported as cups per day, as part of the touchscreen questionnaire at base line with the question ‘How many cups of coffee do you drink a day?’ " Sounds like it's based on the colloquial definition, which means... who knows! Self-reported values are very non-specific, since my definition of a 'cup' could mean a 24oz with an added triple shot... or it could mean a weak…

It will average out, so we will need to ask a British person what size an average cup of coffee is.

Not necessarily. If people are differentially biased to report higher cup counts when their actual caffeine strength is lower (because, for instance, they drink 6 cups of instant coffee), then that will have large implications on the study. Controlling for caffeine content is extremely important.
Post reply on HN