You guessed it - with caffeine!
With politicians and other do-gooders in the good old USA clamoring to save us from the evil of caffeine (and ourselves, so they can control us), it’s surprising scientists have not gone along with the bewitched caffeine hunt. Just the opposite - they have had the temerity to study caffeine’s effects, that turn out to be quite beneficial. How dare they!
So it falls on us to tell you the good news....
BENEFIT No. 1: COMBAT STRESS
Rodrigo Cunha from Portugal's University of Coimbra and his team fed mice drinking water with caffeine added, then put some of the animals under stress.
"If the animal is not stressed there isn't a very evident change in physiological parameters or behavior," he said.
"However, if you introduce changes to the lifestyle of the animals, what we see is they cope much better."
Surprise - caffeine had a CALMING effect on the mice. Who would've thought?
BENEFIT No. 2: PREVENT MEMORY LOSS
Professor Cunha and his team also found that caffeine blocked a stress-related compound in the body and prevented associated issues such as memory loss.
"What caffeine is doing is not making the system work better; what caffeine is doing is leading the system away from going into the wrong way of working," he says.
"So it's prevention, not an improvement."
I’m sure that’s just fine with the rest of us, isn't it?
BENEFIT No. 3: REDUCE DEPRESSION
Citing from his previous studies, Professor Cunha also found evidence that caffeine could help with depression. However, it was not clear previously whether it was the act of buying caffeine containing drinks or food, or caffeine itself, which cheered people up.
"This study was the first to establish a causal link," says he.
"All factors were controlled. The only variable was the intake of caffeine."
Since humans have very different brains to mice (although one wonders sometimes), further investigation is needed. Nevertheless this study is a step towards better treatment for stress and associated illnesses.