Chiropractic Costa Mesa is concerned about your overall wellness and offers that following advice: Just the other day I saw an article on sciencedaily.com regarding a study carried out on aged mice raised to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and the boost that caffeine gave to reversing memory loss. The article lead with the angle that “Coffee drinkers may have another reason to pour that extra cup.” It continued by reporting on back-to-back studies published online July 6 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that proved that caffeine significantly decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice that had developed symptoms of the disease.
But, before you decide to add an extra cuppa to your morning ritual, let me warn you that under “Related Stories” on the website were a couple of articles about studies that demonstrated the not-so-healthy effects of caffeine, “Morning Jolt of Caffeine May Mask Serious Sleep Problems,” and “Coffee Consumption Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack For Persons With Certain Gene Variation.”
In my experience, I’ve noticed that there are probably studies that will affirm, or at least give credence to, almost any point of view, particularly when it comes to health and longevity. The “yin-yang” of caffeine benefits-deficits certainly aren’t, of course, the only ones. Nonetheless, it did get me to pondering about the likelihood that there will never be any “one thing” that will incontrovertibly assist we, humans, in living longer, healthier lives. Humans are dynamic, biological beings. We aren’t raised in unnatural confinement We are free to participate in life. And, let’s face it, though Alzheimer’s disease apparently is on the rise, obviously we, cage-free humans, have not been “bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” therefore caffeine isn’t going to be the “one thing” that is going to reverse or prevent it.
Our body is an exquisite, complex system that is based on homeostasis, i.e, balance. It is likely, then, that good health has more to do with a healthy, balanced way of living, rather than our jumping on the bandwagon of the latest health study and “doing” or “overdoing” one specific thing under the illusion that it will reverse all of the other excessive and unhealthy things we do to our bodies.
As a doctor of chiropractic, it is my belief that every moment of the day we have an opportunity to make decisions that will assist us to live longer, healthier lives, healthy choices for our body and mind. We know what truly “feels” life enriching and what doesn’t when it comes to what is good for our body. So, the if you reach for that extra cup of coffee or that second glass of red wine, I hope that you’ll think about this. There is no “one thing” that will do “everything” for your age-related health issues.