Three things to know about your coffee

Hot drink with stimulating effects, coffee (with caffeine) is increasingly discussed by scientists as a "drug".

Do you read this article a coffee in hand? Across the globe, lovers morning cup know it contains a substance on which they rely heavily: caffeine. It is so effective to boost energy and productivity, that until 2004, the International Olympic Committee in regulated consumption for athletes.

"In many ways, this is the drug of work" slice besides Stephen Braun, author of "Buzz: Science and knowledge of alcohol and caffeine." "When caffeine is arriving for the first time in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century, the owners saw it as a miracle drug that transformed the sleepy employee’s productive cogs in the industrial machine," he illustrates.

While caffeine is known for its ability to keep us awake and alert, several studies also point she can sharpen our performance in a staggering range of tasks. But be careful, because it is easy to abuse and to annul any positive effects. Here is how and when to administer the right dose of coffee stack.

Drink just the right dose

According to a study published in 2014, consuming caffeine can significantly improve long-term memory. To prove it, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore gave multiple images to be stored in guinea pigs who ingested either a placebo pill or a pill with 200 mg of caffeine (approximately the amount in two cups of coffee).

The next day, the researchers tested the ability of guinea pigs to remember images. "We observed that 200 mg of caffeine improves memory over a period of 24 hours," announced Professor Michael Yassa, one of the researchers.

But to take full advantage of this, he suggested to administer caffeine in moderate dose before having to swallow large doses of information. Professor Yassa, however, that caffeine does not produce the same effects as people. So there is no "universal dose."

Drinking a coffee makes lovable

Caffeine it would make people more likely to work? Probably. In a 2009 study, researchers asked their guinea pigs to play a game in which their willingness to cooperate benefited directly to a third party.

The test subjects who consumed 150 mg of caffeine over a cup of coffee have shown much more likely to cooperate than those who drank decaffeinated. More scientists are looking at caffeine, and the more they extract various benefits. "This is a drug with a very broad spectrum," says Stephen Braun.

Caffeine against Alzheimer?

"The effects of other stimulants are more" surgical ". Caffeine works with the adenosine system that is found throughout the brain. It is therefore not surprising that caffeine has effects on things like creativity, writing speed, analysis of information, or the mathematical calculation, "explains Stephen Braun.

According to Professor Yassa, studies indicate that caffeine might be associated with a higher longevity, reduced cognitive decline in humans, mice and even help with Alzheimer's. If these results are confirmed in the future (Professor Yassa and his team are working there), caffeine could one day be prescribed for many other reasons to stay awake and alert.