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This popular drink could help prevent the onset of the neurological disease. Daily drinking cuts dementia risk by half, study finds!
Dementia – a terrible disease
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Aging is different for everyone, but most people fear they will be affected by cognitive impairment as they age. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 55 million people worldwide have dementia, and that number is expected to rise to 78 million by 2030 and 139 million by 2050. Unfortunately, unlike cardiovascular disease, the measures that keep the brain in shape are not so clear. However, according to one study, there is evidence that drinking this one popular beverage daily can cut the risk of developing dementia in half. Read on to learn what you should be putting in your cup more regularly.
Daily tea drinking could cut your dementia risk in half.
In a study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging in December 2016, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore investigated whether or not regular tea consumption could have an effect on the onset of dementia. To this end, the researchers conducted a longitudinal study of 957 participants from China aged 55 years or older.
The results showed that among those who drank tea daily, the risk of developing dementia decreased by 50 percent. Among participants who carried the APOE e4 gene, which carries a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s, the risk of cognitive decline dropped by as much as 86 percent when they drank tea daily.
The researchers concluded that tea could be a simple and inexpensive way to reduce dementia risk.
How easy it is to avoid a severe onset!
According to the researchers, the findings suggest that drinking tea daily could be an affordable, simple way to combat the onset of a serious disease. “Despite high-quality drug trials, effective pharmacological therapy for neurocognitive disorders such as dementia remains elusive, and current prevention strategies are far from satisfactory,” Feng Lei, author of the study and assistant professor at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS), said in a statement. “Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. The data from our study suggest that a simple and inexpensive lifestyle intervention such as daily tea consumption can reduce a person’s risk of developing neurocognitive disorders later in life.”
Feng concluded, “Although the study was conducted on elderly Chinese, the results could apply to other peoples. Our findings have important implications for dementia prevention.”
Any type of tea that is freshly brewed may have the health benefits found in the study
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The researchers also found that the health benefits of drinking tea are not limited to just one type of tea. All freshly brewed teas – including black, green, and oolong teas – have the neuroprotective effects found in the study.
“Based on current knowledge, this long-term benefit of tea consumption is due to the bioactive compounds in tea leaves, such as catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins and L-theanine,” Feng explained. “These compounds exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential, as well as other bioactive properties that may protect the brain from vascular damage and neurodegeneration. Our understanding of the detailed biological mechanisms is still very limited, so we need more research to find definitive answers.”
Separate studies have found that other daily beverages can also significantly boost brain health.
Other research has found that brain health benefits are not limited to tea. A 2018 study from the Krembil Brain Institute, published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, examined the suspected link between coffee consumption and a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers examined the ingredients in various coffee beans, including light roast, dark roast and decaffeinated coffee.
The team discovered that the beans contain phenylindanes, a chemical compound that prevents the buildup and clumping of proteins such as beta-amyloid and tau, which are known to lead to Alzheimer’s. Because prolonged roasting leads to an increase in phenylindane content, the researchers concluded that dark-roasted coffee offers better protection against the neurological disease.
Caffeine probably not a factor
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Interestingly, the researchers also found that the amount of caffeine – long thought to prevent the onset of dementia – had no effect on the outcome. “The caffeinated and decaffeinated dark roast coffee both had the same effect in our initial experimental tests,” Ross Mancini, PhD, a research fellow in medicinal chemistry, said in a statement. “So we determined early on that the protective effect could not be due to the caffeine.”