How daily cups of tea can shield you from dementia
- Having cups of tea every day can help prevent the onset of dementia
- Drinking tea lowered the risk by 50% – and by 86% for those with a genetic risk
- Researchers say the drink contains bioactive compounds that improve memory and prevent brain cells from dying
Drinking tea could shield you from dementia, a new study claims.
Scientists say drinking tea can lower the risk of cognitive impairment by 50 percent.
And the risk fell by as much as 86 percent for older adults who have a genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers say both green and black teas contain bioactive compounds that improve memory and prevent brain cells from dying.
A new study has found that drinking tea daily can lower the risk of dementia by 50 percent – and by 86 percent for those who have a genetic risk
The study, conducted at the National University of Singapore, studied more than 900 Chinese seniors who were aged 55 or older.
Participants provided the researchers with information on the amount of tea they drank from 2003 to 2005.
The researchers assessed them on cognitive function every two years until 2010. They also collected data on lifestyle, medical conditions, and physical and social activity.
Out of the sample, only 72 seniors developed a neurocognitive disorder.
The team found that seniors reduced their risk of these disorders by up to 50 percent when they consumed two or more cups of green tea or black/oolong tea daily.
Long-term benefits are due to the bioactive compounds in the leaves, such as catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins and L-theanine, the researchers noted.
‘While the study was conducted on Chinese elderly, the results could apply to other races as well,’ said Dr Feng Lei, an assistant professor of psychological medicine at the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
‘Our findings have important implications for dementia prevention.
‘Despite high quality drug trials, effective pharmacological therapy for neurocognitive disorders, such as dementia, remains elusive and current prevention strategies are far from satisfactory.’
Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, next to water. Statistics in 2015 showed that more than 100 million Americans consumed more than 80 billion servings of tea.
However, China is by far the largest consumer of tea, at 1.6 billion pounds a year.
Past studies have extolled the virtues of tea, claiming several health benefits.
A 2016 study found a nearly 20 percent reduction in the risk of heart attack and a 35 percent reduced risk of stroke among those who drank one to three cups of green tea a day.
Those who drank four or more cups of green tea daily had a 32 percent reduction in the risk of having a heart attack and lower levels of LDL cholesterol, or ‘bad’ cholesterol.
And Japanese researchers have found that tea can decrease tooth loss. The beverage changes the pH levels in your mouth when you drink it, which may be what prevents cavities.
I was losing my memory, focus – and my mind! And then… I got it all back again.
‘The data from our study suggests that a simple and inexpensive lifestyle measure such as daily tea drinking can reduce a person’s risk of developing neurocognitive disorders in late life,’ said Dr Lei.
‘These compounds exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential and other bioactive properties that may protect the brain from vascular damage and neurodegeneration.’
