Health Choices

Dr. Jamie Phillips

Last week I read an article on sciencedaily.com how caffeine decreased memory loss in aged mice raised to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The article lead with the angle that “Coffee drinkers may have another reason to pour that extra cup.”  It went on to report on back-to-back studies published online July 6 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that showed that caffeine significantly decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice that had developed symptoms of the disease.

However, before you opt to add an extra cup of coffee to your morning ritual, let me, Dr. Jamie Phillips elaborate by saying that also on the website, under “Related Stories,” were a couple of articles about studies that professed to prove the negative effects of caffeine, “Morning Jolt of Caffeine May Mask Serious Sleep Problems,” and “Coffee Consumption Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack For Persons With Certain Gene Variation.”

Nearly every point of view, it seems to me, particularly when it comes to age-related health issues, can be corroborated, or at least given credence, by other related studies. The “good/bad” studies related to caffeine certainly aren’t, of course, the only ones. Even so, it did get me to pondering about the probability that there will not ever be just “one thing” that will absolutely assist we, humans, in living longer, healthier lives. We are dynamic, biological beings. We are free to make choices in life. We’re not confined to a cage! And, let’s face it, though Alzheimer’s disease apparently is on the rise, obviously none of us has been “artificially induced to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” so caffeine isn’t going to be the “one thing” that is going to prevent or reverse it.

Our body is an elegant, involved system that is based on homeostasis, that is to say, balance. Consequently good health has more to do with a healthy, balanced approach to living, instead of our jumping on the bandwagon of the latest health study and “doing” or “overdoing” one specific thing in the hope that it will reverse all of the other over-indulgent and harmful things we do to our bodies.

I believe, as a doctor of chiropractic in Santa Barbara, that every moment of the day we have an opportunity to make healthy choices for our body, decisions that will help us to live longer, healthier lives. When it comes to what is good for our body, we know what genuinely “feels” right and what doesn’t. So, I just wanted to offer some thoughts for you to keep in mind the next time you reach for that extra cup of coffee or second glass of red wine. Neither one of those things is the “one thing” that will do “everything” for your age-related health issues.