Green tea may keep brain healthy

           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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