Calzaretto Chiropractic Center

“A higher consumption of green tea is associated with a lower prevalence of cognitive impairment in humans,” according to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The study included about 1,000 Japanese people aged 70 and older. Participants took tests of mental status including memory, orientation, ability to follow commands and attention. They also told the researchers how often they drank beverages including green tea. Those who reported drinking the most green tea were least likely to show cognitive impairment, based on their test scores, write Shinichi Kuriyama, MD, PhD and colleagues. Kuriyama works in the department of public health and forensic medicine at Tohoku University’s medical school in Sendal, Japan.

Drinking at least two daily cups of green tea was tied to the lowest risk of cognitive impairment in Kuriyama’s study. Compared with people who drank a cup of green tea up to three times weekly, those who drank two or more daily cups of green tea were 54% less likely to have test scores in the range of cognitive impairment.

Drinking green tea a little less often wasn’t bad. People who drank a cup of green tea four to six times per week were 38% less likely to show cognitive impairment than those drinking green tea less than three times weekly.

Kuriyama’s team considered factors linked to cognitive impairment, including diabetes, smoking and advanced age. They also adjusted for potentially helpful habits, such as physical activity, social ties, consumption of fish and vegetables and self-reported overall health. Even after considering all those factors, high consumption of green tea was still associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment, the study shows.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the association between consumption of green tea and cognitive function in humans,” Kuriyama’s team writes.

They note that natural compounds in green tea—especially a chemical called EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate)—have shown promise in experiments on brain diseases in animals.

FROM: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition