FOUR cups of tea or coffee a day cuts the risk of dementia by more than a quarter, a study suggests.
Regularly consuming the hot drinks also cuts stroke rates by about a third.
It also halves the number of dementia cases following a stroke, the researchers discovered.
The findings are from a study of 365,682 British men and women aged 50 to 74 over 15 years.
Dr Yuan Zhang, of Tianjin Medical University, China, said: “Moderate consumption of coffee and tea separately or in combination were associated with lower risk of stroke and dementia.”
The drinks are rich in plant chemicals called flavonoids which boost blood flow to the brain.
They also dampen inflammation and destroy rogue proteins called amyloid-beta which damage neurons.
Participants who drank two or three cups of coffee and the same of tea daily had a 28 and 32 per cent lower risk of dementia and stroke, respectively.
Dementia affects 920,000 people in the UK — a figure that will rise to two million by 2050. Stroke claims 38,000 lives each year.
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