Study: Drinking tea improves brain health
By: Team Ifairer | Posted: 12-09-2019
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Researchers found that those who consumed tea at least four times a week had brain regions that were connected in a more efficient way, National University of Singapore (NUS) said. The research team recruited 36 adults aged 60 and above, and gathered data about their health, lifestyle and psychological well-being. They also underwent neuropsychological tests and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the study that was conducted from 2015 to 2018.
The results found that those who consumed either green tea, oolong tea or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had brain regions that were connected more efficiently. Team leader Assistant Professor Feng Lei, from the Department of Psychological Medicine at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, said the results suggest that drinking tea regularly can protect the brain from age-related decline.
"Take the analogy of road traffic as an example - consider brain regions as destinations, while the connections between brain regions are roads. When a road system is better organised, the movement of vehicles and passengers is more efficient and uses less resources. "Similarly, when the connections between brain regions are more structured, information processing can be performed more efficiently," Asst Prof Feng said.