As an avid tea drinker my entire life, I was thrilled to find that it may offer more than refreshing, thirst-quenching enjoyment.
Recent research studies have shown that regular tea drinking can improve overall mood and help prevent cardiovascular disease. Now researchers are also saying that daily tea consumption can reduce cognitive decline as we age by as much as 50%. That’s huge!
In a study held at the University of Singapore, people that drank either green tea, oolong tea, or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had brain regions that were interconnected in a more efficient way.
“Our results offer the first evidence of positive contribution of tea drinking to brain structure, and suggest that drinking tea regularly has a protective effect against age-related decline in brain organization,” explains Feng Lei, an assistant professor in the psychological medicine department at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore.
“We have shown in our previous studies that tea drinkers had better cognitive function as compared to non-tea drinkers. Our current results relating to brain network indirectly support our previous findings by showing that the positive effects of regular tea drinking are the result of improved brain organization brought about by preventing disruption to interregional connections,” he says.
Another recent study performed at the University of Missouri found that green tea, combined with exercise could slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
This is all great news for tea drinkers and might offer some new options for the develoment of new treatments for Alzheimer’s and for age-related cognitive decline.
Resource Links
Futurity: Tea Drinkers May Get Some Protection Against Brain Decline
National University of Singapore: Drinking tea may improve brain health
Habitual tea drinking modulates brain efficiency: evidence from brain connectivity evaluation
Futurity: Green Tea Extract Slows Down Alzheimer’s in Mice
