Dear Reader,
“Yeah, I’ll take another glass. It’s so refreshing. Plus, it’s helping me keep these memories”
Last week, I was able to spend some time with my extended family, who are die-hard tea drinkers.
All of them wake up with a cup of hot tea and proceed to wash down the rest of the day with glass after glass of iced black tea.
But during this latest trip, I noticed that one of my aunts had changed to green tea.
Since I prefer the taste of green tea, I was happy to see she made the switch.
But I was also curious why. She’s drank traditional black iced tea since before I was even born. Why switch it up now?
So I asked her… and was pleasantly surprised by her answer.
My aunt had switched because green tea would help protect her from dementia.
Make the Connection With Green Tea
You see, my aunt’s doctor suggested she make the switch due to important research that shows green tea can greatly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia by boosting the brain’s cognitive functions and working memory.
In a study published in the journal Psychopharmacology, researchers from the University of Basel found that green tea extract has a powerful impact on the human brain — especially the memory.
The researchers found that consuming green tea can lead to increased improvement in cognitive performance though connectivity because it improves the ability of different parts of the brain to communicate with each other.
For the study, healthy male participants were given soft drinks containing green tea extract. After consuming the drinks, the volunteers were given working memory tasks to solve. During the task solving process, researchers analyzed the participants’ brain functions with MRIs.
And what they found was amazing!
The green tea increased connectivity between two very important parts of the brain, the parietal and frontal cortex. The participants also performed significantly better on working memory tasks after drinking the green tea extract.
These results may help explain how green tea can change our minds in such a complex way.
The brain’s parietal lobe processes sensory information from all regions of the brain. This means the things we see, taste, feel, hear and touch are all consolidated and processed in the parietal lobe, which could explain the memory boost observed by researchers.
It’s Time to Go Green
In addition to these amazing results, another study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research found that green tea can actually help you grow new brain cells in the hippocampus. These cells can help with memory and spatial learning.
The focus of the study was EGCG, or epigallocatechin-3 gallate, which is a compound found in green tea. EGCG is a powerful antioxidant and thought to be the catalyst for the brain cell growth and could be beneficial to folks with learning and memory issues.
Results like the ones found in these two studies mean natural substances like green tea could revolutionize the treatment of dementia and other memory disorders.
So if you’re thinking of making the switch to green tea (if you haven’t already), there’s no better time than now.
You can purchase many different types and flavors of green tea. Any will do the trick as long as they have an organic certification. There is some evidence that green teas from China can contain high levels of aluminum, so you may want to find a tea from a different country of origin, like Sri Lanka or Japan.
And lastly, to get the most out of your green tea, it’s best to brew it yourself. While bottled tea might be more convenient, brewed teas will contain more beneficial antioxidants. This is true for both hot and cold teas.
Live well,
Natalie Moore
Managing editor, Living Well Daily
Sources
[1] Green tea boosts your brain
[2] Parietal Lobe
