There is a lot of evidence to show that drinking green tea or taking certain types of green tea supplements can significantly reduce many of the effects of aging. From helping to keep you looking youthful to reducing your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease and boosting the memory, green tea looks like an easy natural way to keep old age at bay.
Alzheimer’s Researchers at the University of South Florida discovered that a certain compound found in green tea, EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) helps to reduce beta-amyloid protein production in the brain. This protein causes clogging in the cells of the brain by forming plaque and is one of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. However, according to the research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, it seems that just drinking green tea alone wouldn’t do enough. Green tea has some other flavinoids which unfortunately counteract some of the protection offered by this EGCG compound. The researchers therefore believe that a daily dietary supplement of about 1500 to 1600mg of pure EGCG compound would be a more effective prevention against Alzheimer’s.
Boosting Memory Other researchers working at Britain’s Newcastle University have found that green tea helps to prevent memory loss, as well as boosting your memory, while coffee had no similar effect. Black tea was also helpful but only for a day, but green tea helped for up to a week. The research published in the academic journal Phytotherapy Research, showed that green tea inhibits certain enzymes, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) and beta-secretase that affect the brain. By inhibiting the activities of these enzymes, the properties in green tea help to prevent the loss of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, as well as preventing various protein deposits which are detrimental to the brain. By helping against memory loss the properties of green tea may delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and the symptoms of dementia.
However you don’t have to be elderly to see the benefits of green tea on the memory!
So if you are at college and want to boost your memory while studying for tests, perhaps you should ditch the coffee and switch to green tea!
Reducing Mortality Yet more researchers at Tohoku University School of Public Policy, Sendai, Japan, investigated the effects of green tea on mortality rates publishing their results in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. According to this research people who drank five or more cups of green tea daily had a lower rate of mortality from all causes, including cardio-vascular disease, than people who drank less or didn’t drink green tea at all. However, their research didn’t show any significant advantage for people suffering from cancer related illnesses.
Other Aging Problems Green tea also seems to help people suffering from glaucoma and other eye diseases, as well as playing a role in preventing prostate cancer in men. As it can also help prevent facial wrinkles as well as the more serious osteoporosis which women are particularly susceptible to, drinking green tea seems to be an overall anti-aging elixir.
So it seems you can’t really go wrong by having a daily cup or five of green tea. Who knows – perhaps the famous mythical Fountain Of Youth was a fountain of green tea!