Is coffee good for your brain?

**Becca** (0:01)
From BBC Learning English. This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

**Neil** (0:08)
In this programme, how drinking a few cups of coffee or tea each day can help keep your brain healthy and working well.

**Becca** (0:19)
Hello, I'm Becca.

**Neil** (0:21)
And I'm Neil.

**Becca** (0:22)
In this programme, we look at one big story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

**Neil** (0:28)
You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

**Becca** (0:44)
A UK study suggests that drinking coffee within a few hours of waking up can make you happier.

**Neil** (0:50)
The head of the Happiness, Culture and Personality Research Group at the University of Warwick, Professor Anu Rehlo, explains that this may be because caffeine, the stimulant found in tea and coffee, blocks a chemical that makes us feel tired.

**Becca** (1:07)
Yes, and a stimulant is something that causes an effect or stimulates an effect. At the same time, caffeine encourages or stimulates the release of dopamine, which some people know as the happy hormone.

**Neil** (1:20)
The European Food Safety Authority recommends that adults should not drink more than 400mg of caffeine per day. That's generally equivalent to 3 to 4 cups.

**Becca** (1:29)
Let's have our first headline. This is from The Standard, a British newspaper.
Coffee brings happiness and may prevent stroke. 7 key points for healthy coffee consumption.

**Neil** (1:41)
That headline again from The Standard, coffee brings happiness and may prevent stroke. 7 key points for healthy coffee consumption.

**Becca** (1:50)
This headline draws attention to how drinking coffee can prevent stroke, a medical emergency where blood stops flowing to a part of your brain.

**Neil** (1:58)
We're going to focus on the word key. Now, what can you tell us about this word key, Becca?

**Becca** (2:04)
Well, you may be familiar with the object key, which can be used to open a door. But when we use key as an adjective, we're saying that something is really important, in the same way that a key is crucial for unlocking a door.

**Neil** (2:18)
Yes, so it might be useful to think of key as a metaphor for something that gives you access, perhaps to knowledge or an idea.

**Becca** (2:27)
So, when we look at the language in the headline, it describes key points. These are the important points.

**Neil** (2:33)
Yes, and you might hear the expression key witness in a court case, for example, and the key witness is the person with really important knowledge.

**Becca** (2:43)
Yes, or in a sports team, you might have a key player. This is the player who performs the most important role.

**Neil** (2:52)
We've had key. Describes something important.

**Becca** (2:58)
For example, friendship plays a key role in building social skills.

**Neil** (3:08)
This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines. Today we're talking about coffee and how new research says it's good for your brain.

**Becca** (3:18)
Another headline tells us that two to three cups of coffee each day can help lower the risk of memory loss diseases such as dementia.

**Neil** (3:26)
Yes, so a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that those who drank tea and coffee showed a slower rate of cognitive decline compared to those who didn't.

**Becca** (3:38)
Cognitive describes the mental processes involved in learning and understanding things. This includes thinking, memory and reasoning.

**Neil** (3:47)
So cognitive decline is how your brain loses those abilities over time.

**Becca** (3:52)
Let's look at this headline. This headline is from Medical Express, a medical research group.
Consuming two to three cups of coffee daily associated with lower dementia risk, better cognitive function.

**Neil** (4:05)
That headline again from Medical Express, Consuming 2-3 cups of coffee daily associated with lower dementia risk, better cognitive function.

**Becca** (4:16)
This headline mentions how drinking coffee is associated with better cognitive or brain function.

**Neil** (4:21)
Yes, and we're looking at this word associated. Well, it means that something is linked to something else. We associate things with other things, perhaps the brain, or the brain.

**Becca** (4:29)
So, we associate things with other things, perhaps these things are related or connected.

**Neil** (4:37)
Yes, and if you're going to mention all the things that are connected, we use the preposition with.

**Becca** (4:43)
Yes, for example, knowing many languages is associated with better memory.

**Neil** (4:48)
It is. And we can use the noun form association to talk about these things as well. We could say, there's an association between knowing many languages and better memory.