【英语时差8,16】咖啡因和记忆力（上）（在线收听）

It’s well known that caffeine has dozens of health benefits. Coffee, for example, is rich in antioxidants: molecules believed to protect against heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. Caffeine is also a mood booster and useful for treating headaches. Now there’s evidence that caffeine could be good for memory. Scientists at the University of South Florida found that caffeine reverses memory loss in mice bred to develop Alzheimer’s like memory problems. Of the fifty-five mice in the study, half drank caffeinated water the equivalent of about five cups of coffee a day. The other half drank regular water. Two months later, the caffeine swilling mice had the memories of much younger, dementia free mice. Apparently, caffeine helped reduce the production of Alzheimer’s causing proteins in the mice’s brains. And the mice that drank regular water? They lost more and more of their memory and thinking skills.