Green Tea May Keep Brain Healthy by Sue Mueller
Feb 25, 2006, 18:38
Drinking green tea daily may help reduce risk of dementia,
suggests a new Japanese study appearing in the current issue of the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The study found the amount of green tea consumed was inversely
related with the risk of having cognitive impairment in the aging
process.
For the study, Dr. Shinichi Kuriyama of Tohoku University
Graduate School of Medicine and colleagues surveyed 1,003 men and
women ages 70 or older for their dietary practice in the previous
month, their overall physical health and lifestyle. They also
evaluated subjects' cognitive functions such as language use,
attention and memory using a standard test.
They found those who drank two or more cups of green tea a day
were 50 percent less likely to show cognitive impairment than those
who drank three cups or less a week. The risk for those who drank
one cup a day fell somewhere in between.
Previous lab and animal studies have also indicated that certain
compounds of green tea may help protect against the damages that
are linked with conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
disease.
The current findings do not mean that drinking green tea results
in lower risk of dementia because the study did not establish a
causal relationship between drinking green tea and cognitive
capacity.
There may be some other factors associated with green tea
drinking such as overall lifestyle and diet that may have an impact
on the mental health.
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