Caffeine

If you can’t start your morning without caffeine, you’re not alone. More than 60% of Americans drink coffee every day, the National Coffee Association says.

If starting your day without a cup of coffee sounds like torture, you’ve got company. But is that daily caffeine jolt good for your brain?

As the executive director of the Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH), I am always on the lookout for brain-healthy foods. I scan grocery aisles for chocolate bars with more than 70 percent cocoa, feel that I’m stimulating my brain when I down my morning coffee and even feel virtuous when drinking…

Today’s high-tech beauty world was 50 years in the future when model Jean Shrimpton (right) peered from a pink space helmet for the April 1965 cover of Harper’s Bazaar.

My husband knows not to talk to me before I have my first cup of coffee in the morning. Maybe not even until after the third.

There's been a lot of good news lately about coffee's health benefits, how it protects against  cancer and other diseases,  but America's favorite wake-up drink can also keep some common medications from working properly.

So you're driving to some far-flung relative's home for the holidays and halfway there you start feeling sleepy. Do you pull over for some coffee? Pull over and take a short nap?

Are you like me, incapable of human interaction until you've had that first cup (or three) of coffee? Don't feel bad. We're not caffeine addicts, we're just protecting ourselves against Alzheimer's disease.