Hi listeners, Benjamin here. Welcome to the Nature Briefing podcast. The Friday show,

we talk about a couple of stories we've been reading in the Nature briefing, which is Nature's

Daily Roundup of the latest science news. And joining me today is none other than Nick Petrich Howe.

Nick, thanks for being here.

Oh, thanks for having me, Ben. So a couple of stories then, as I say, why don't you go first this week, Nick? What are you bringing? Well, this week I've got a story that I think a lot of people will be happy to hear. It is a story about how caffeine could help slow cognitive decline and stave off dementia. That is good news and I'm very excited to hear this, Nick. Go ahead.

Well, before we get to the good news, I should puncture it slightly as this

is only observational data. So this is not based on an experiment. This is based on long-term surveys of people. So

there's only so much we can actually say from this.

So we should interpret it with caution.

But getting to the story itself, this was something I was reading about in nature.

And basically, a study has looked at 130,000 people over 43,000 years,

so a really long-term study, and found that moderate caffeine intake,

so one to two cups of tea or two to three cups of coffee, is linked to slower cognitive

decline and less chance of developing dementia, things like Alzheimer's.

Well, that sounds like good news then, Nick.

And you say this is a big study then.

And talk about some of the data they included. So this study leveraged two decades long health

studies. So this was the nurse's health study and the health professionals follow-up study.

So these are for health professionals. And it's tracked their caffeine drinking habits for over 43 years, as I said,

and as well as documenting their diet, people also filled out questionnaires about their cognitive function,

and they took tests as well for a more objective measure.

So they did things like recount strings of words, which can help detect signs of dementia.

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