So you really young stroke survivors you might want to lay off the caffeine.
Caffeine consumption slows down brain development
Humans and other mammals show particularly intensive sleeping
patterns during puberty. The brain also matures fastest in this period.
But when pubescent rats are administered caffeine, the maturing
processes in their brains are delayed. This is the result of a study
supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Children’s and young adults’ average caffeine consumption has
increased by more than 70 per cent over the past 30 years, and an end to
this rise is not in sight: the drinks industry is posting its
fastest-growing sales in the segment of caffeine-laden energy drinks.
Not everybody is pleased about this development. Some people are worried
about possible health risks caused in young consumers by the
pick-me-up.
Researchers led by Reto Huber of the University Children’s Hospital
Zurich are now adding new arguments to the debate. In their recently
published study conducted on rats (*), the conclusions call for caution:
in pubescent rodents, caffeine intake equating to three to four cups of
coffee per day in humans results in reduced deep sleep and a delayed
brain development.
Peak level during puberty
Both in humans and in rats, the duration
and intensity of deep sleep as well as the number of synapses or
connections in the brain increase during childhood, reaching their
highest level during puberty and dropping again in adult age. “The brain
of children is extremely plastic due to the many connections,” says
Huber. When the brain then begins to mature during puberty, a large
number of these connections are lost. “This optimisation presumably
occurs during deep sleep. Key synapses extend, others are reduced; this
makes the network more efficient and the brain more powerful,” says
Huber.
Timid instead of curious
Huber’s group of researchers administered
moderate quantities of caffeine to 30-day-old rats over five days and
measured the electrical current generated by their brains. The deep
sleep periods, which are characterised by slow waves, were reduced from
day 31 until day 42, i.e. well beyond the end of administering caffeine.
Compared to the rats being given pure drinking water, the researchers
found far more neural connections in the brains of the caffeine-drinking
animals at the end of the study. The slower maturing process in the
brain also had an impact on behaviour: rats normally become more curious
with age, but the rats consuming caffeine remained timid and cautious.
The brain goes through a delicate maturing phase in puberty, during
which many mental diseases can break out. And even if the rat brain
differs clearly from that of humans, the many parallels in how the
brains develop raise the question as to whether children’s and young
adults’ caffeine intake really is harmless or whether it might be wiser
to abstain from consuming the pick-me-up. “There is still need for
research in this area,” says Huber.
http://www.snsf.ch
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