• Question: Hi, i read an article saying drinking coffee everyday lowers your risks of getting demantia, is it ture, as far as you know; also, what do you do exactly when you're doing your PhD, do you still learn new stuff at a deeper level or do you do independent research on a topic?

    Asked by Sophia2 to Sophie P, paulterrill, Katharine G, janmckendrick, Gabrielle (she/her), Emma W, cathyfernandes, Allyson L, Ailish T on 6 Mar 2025.
    • Photo: Jan McKendrick

      Jan McKendrick answered on 6 Mar 2025: last edited 6 Mar 2025 14:14

      thats a god question and shows why science is important. There might be one study (experiement) which says that there is a link, but we need to understand the experiment better – could there be other reasons why the risk of dementia was lower in that study? And what do other studies say (from what I’ve quickly read, there are lots of different answers).

      Making sure experiments are done well and measure the right things is important. Making sure the analyses are right is also important. And understanding what other people have learned about the same thing is really important too.

      Most PhDs look at a specific topic in more depth, learning a bit more about it but also trying to answer a science question that people dont know the answer to yet. So yes, independen
      t research and more learning

    • Photo: Emma Weir

      Emma Weir answered on 10 Mar 2025:

      There are a few papers that have looked at this, and I think the overall evidence isn’t very strong, that’s why its always good to look at different research before we make conclusions
      With diseases like dementia happening in later life, there are so many things people may have done in their lives, diets, habits, just exposure to different environments, which might have affected their health so it’s very hard to pick single thing to change which might help lower the risk.

      With my PhD I’ve been doing independent lab research experiments but because you want to become an expert in the field you do a lot of reading and learning around your work to look deeper into what’s happening and to improve your ideas.

    • Photo: Cathy Fernandes

      Cathy Fernandes answered on 21 Mar 2025:

      There is no strong evidence that coffee influences a person’s risk of developing dementia.Some studies have shown that caffeine in coffee and tea may reduce dementia risk by a small amount, while other studies show no effect or a slightly increased risk. These studies can attract quite a bit of media attention, but they often overstate the impact and reliability of the research.

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