Does Green Tea Prevent Alzheimer's Disease?

This article in the Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter certainly added some fuel to the fire - Green Tea Protects Brain Cells. Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room Email: Now to the new and existing research. Before we start, keep in mind the researchers used a powerful extract of green tea compound called EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate). When you read the word extracts this usually means a "high octane" version of what you could usually get drinking a cup of tea. It also usually means that you might have to drink hundreds of cups of green tea in order to get the same effect that comes from ingesting the "extract". First up, Jeffrey B. Blumberg, a director of Tufts’ HNRCA Antioxidants Research Laboratory, found that “recent studies on flavonoids, phytochemicals especially rich in plant foods like berries and tea, show they may act to promote brain performance and/or reduce the risk for neurodegenerative conditions.” A second new study by Swiss researchers, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that green-tea beverages were associated with increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain. This is a key area for working memory processing. The researchers found the activity was greater still with the higher dose of the green-tea extract. No, this extract is not available for purchase. And yes, it is some kind of mega-dose. Another study used mice to test the brain-cell effects of EGCG in green tea. Chi...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Dementia Authors: Source Type: blogs