Scientists discover exactly how many cups of coffee each day can help reduce dementia risk

It's the beverage that gets us going in the morning, and the fuel for work and studying alike.

But it turns out that chugging coffee to help get your brain going might have more to it than first meets the reddened, sleep-deprived eye.

Experts have found that drinking a particular amount of coffee every day may be linked to a reduced risk of dementia as we get older.

Now, to be clear, this is very much not a case of the more the merrier - splitting the G on pints of espresso isn't going to do you more good, there's a cutoff point.

Scientists explained that in order to reap the benefits of this you need to be falling within a particular degree of caffeine consumption.

Think Goldilocks - not too much, not too little.

So, how much is just right when it comes to coffee and dementia prevention?

Coffee might be good for more than just keeping you awake for exams (Guido Mieth/Getty)

Well, according to the study from Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard the ideal amount is about 2-3 cups a day.

The study looked at data from 131,821 participants and found that there was an indication that moderate consumption of coffee or tea had a positive impact in decreasing risk of dementia.

Senior author Daniel Wang said: “When searching for possible dementia prevention tools, we thought something as prevalent as coffee may be a promising dietary intervention - and our unique access to high-quality data through studies that have been going on for more than 40 years allowed us to follow through on that idea."

However, he still stressed that coffee alone is probably not going to cut it, and there are plenty of other things that you should also do to help keep your brain healthy.

Having a nice, moderate 2-3 cups a day is the golden ratio (Tony Anderson/Getty)

“While our results are encouraging, it’s important to remember that the effect size is small and there are lots of important ways to protect cognitive function as we age," he said.

"Our study suggests that caffeinated coffee or tea consumption can be one piece of that puzzle.”

Building good cognitive habits early on is a good way to guard against dementia.

For example, one study found that learning or being able to speak another language can help to improve someone's cognitive function.

While it can't prevent dementia entirely, someone who speaks more than one language could stave the symptoms for longer.

So, if you want to protect yourself against dementia then learn Italian and sit in a cafe drinking coffee, what a chore!

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