Here’s How Coffee Can Improve Your Cognitive Health & Mood

There is a reason that in every college campus and hospital you will find a virtually endless amount of students and staff walking around with their coffee thermos. There is nothing that compares to the warm embrace of a cup of joe when you need that extra brain power to work through your third all nighter hitting the books or attending to your patients.

Nora Tobin, performance enhancement and executive coach, nutrition specialist and CEO of Nora’s Naturals Coffee, lists three major cognitive benefits of coffee.

“Depending on the level of intake, coffee can help enhance cognition, such as memory, alertness, concentration and overall mental performance. Coffee’s compounds include a lot of antioxidants, which help fight damage caused by free radicals in your body cells, and helps prevent cognitive damage in the brain. Caffeine — the primary ingredient in coffee — stimulates the central nervous system through the release of neurotransmitters, and leads to an increase in resting brain entropy that increases one’s information processing capacity,” says Nora Tobin.

Here are Nora’s top three major cognitive benefits of coffee:

Benefit #1: Improved Mood
Drinking coffee can improve your overall mood by boosting energy levels and improving willpower, focus and memory. The caffeine in coffee stimulates your central nervous system, which in turn, boosts your overall brain function. Getting a cup of coffee is a great option to turn to if you need a quick pick-me-up when you are not feeling your best.

Benefit #2: Brain Protection
Research suggests that moderate coffee consumption per day is associated with a significant decrease in the risk of developing brain diseases and cognitive decline, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Coffee can also sharpen memory and focus and keep the brain well.

Benefit #3: Improved Mental Health
Not only is it a delicious beverage to enjoy throughout the day, but coffee has also been shown to provide benefits to an individual’s mental health. This may be due to its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and microbiome-promoting effects. The caffeine in coffee has the added ability to block receptors in the brain from binding with a chemical that leads to fatigue and a saddened mood.