Contents:
- Medical Video: Why You Shouldn't Drink Caffeine After 2 P.M.
- Source of caffeine in food and drinks
- Caffeine can improve memory
- Have to drink how much caffeine to improve memory?
- How can caffeine improve memory?
Medical Video: Why You Shouldn't Drink Caffeine After 2 P.M.
Are you among those who forget easily? If yes, there is good news for you. Recent research has revealed that the caffeine content in your drinks and food can help improve memory. How can caffeine improve a person's memory? See the full explanation below.
Source of caffeine in food and drinks
Caffeine can be found in various foods that we consume everyday. Maybe you know the most common source of caffeine, coffee and tea. However, there are still many other foods such as beans and cocoa beans that also contain caffeine.
Caffeine is also found in several drugs that we often use, such as painkillers and cold medicine.
Caffeine can improve memory
A study conducted in America analyzed 160 participants aged between 18-30 years to study the effect of caffeine on memory.
On the first day of the study, participants were shown a picture of different objects and were asked to recognize the object as "indoor" or "outdoor".
Immediately after the assignment, participants were divided into two groups randomly. The first group received 200 milligrams (mg) of caffeine in pill form. The second group took pills placebo (medicine is empty, without any ingredients or substances).
The next day, the same participants were shown a series of other photos that were the same as the previous day, in addition to several new photos and photos similar to the original picture. Then they are asked to classify the photo of the object as "new photo", "old photo", or "similar to the original picture".
Participants who received caffeine pills the day before were better able to recognize which images were "similar to the original image" compared to participants who received placebo pills.
The conclusion drawn from this study is that participants who drank caffeine pills did experience increased memory compared to people who did not drink caffeine at all.
Have to drink how much caffeine to improve memory?
The team of experts carried out further research to distinguish the dose of caffeine given. Researchers found that participants who received 200 milligrams of caffeine performed better than participants who received 100 milligrams of caffeine.
However, when participants get 300 milligrams of caffeine, their memory does not necessarily increase as they consume 200 milligrams of caffeine.
Therefore, the researchers concluded that the right dose of caffeine to increase memory was 200 milligrams. You can get 200 milligrams of caffeine from about two cups of black coffee or about four cups of black tea.
How can caffeine improve memory?
In the study, experts described caffeine as being able to block a molecule named adenosine. These molecules can interfere with the function of neurotransmitters (nerve cells) in the brain. In fact, to be able to store new information into memory, the nerve cells of your brain must work together in a compact manner.
In addition, caffeine has also been shown to improve communication between neurons in the brain, the CA2 region in the hippocampus, which is part of the brain that plays a role in memory.
However, everyone can have different reactions to caffeine. You can be very sensitive to the effects so that they become restless, trembling, or the heart beats fast. There are also people who often drink caffeine from coffee and tea so that the effect on the body is not too noticeable anymore.
