Oolong tea sharpens the mind

Health News ,  June, 2006

Drinking at least two cups of tea a day will sharpen the mind, a recent Japanese study found. Dr. Shinichi Kuiyama, MD, PhD, and colleagues of the department of public health and forensic medicine at Tohoku University Medical School in Sendai, Japan, found that drinking at least two cups of green tea daily would lessen the risk of cognitive impairment.

The study was published in a recent issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In the study, more than 1003 Japanese subjects aged 70 and older completed questionnaires to determine their mental status, which included memory, attention span, orientation, ability to follow commands, and frequency of their green tea consumption.

Those who reported drinking the most green tea were least likely to have cognitive
impairments. Even drinking a cup of green tea four to six times per week was beneficial; those tea drinkers were 38 percent less likely to have cognitive impairment compared with those who drank tea less than three times per week.

ince results from only one survey were collected, it was not clear whether the participant's tea drinking routine was lifelong or recent. The researchers did, however, take into consideration the presence of diabetes, smoking, and advanced age, as well as degree of physical activity, social ties, consumption of fish and vegetables, and self-reported health status.

There are several beneficial compounds in green tea, particularly epigallocatechin-3-gallate, which has been used in experiments on animals with brain disease. However, the Japanese tend to socialize while they drink green tea and socializing alone can be beneficial to cognitive health. The results did not transfer to coffee, black tea, or oolong tea.

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