Scientists find a connection between tea drinking & brain health

Get improved brain structure by drinking tea

Thursday, 14th May 2020

Tea is a beverage of universal appeal and is one of the most popular beverages across the globe. It is a caffeinate beverage that comes in several varieties such as Green Tea, Black Tea, Oolong Tea and more.  There’s a diverse range of tea recipes and the recipes differ from country to country. But, whichever may be the recipe in question; tea lovers across the globe are all gaga about the fascinating experience a sip of tea can bring them.

Tea has been a very popular subject of research worldwide. Scientists have been delving deep to find facts about the benefits of tea. A recent research has underlined the importance of drinking tea for boosting brain functions and brain structure…more precisely, the findings pointed out that you could have improved structural as well as functional connectivity in your brain if you are drinking tea regularly.

The study was named as "Habitual tea drinking modulates brain efficiency: evidence from brain connectivity evaluation". The study published in the ‘Aging’ journal. For conducting the research, the subjects chosen for the research were asked to asked to answer a questionnaire in which they were queried on their tea drinking habits…most of the subjects were 60 years of age & above.

The subjects also gave details regarding their lifestyle, psychological health & overall health. Then the subjects were categorized into two groups- that of tea drinkers and of non-tea drinkers and members of each of the groups were made to go for MRI of their brains. Apart from MRI Scans the member of each of the groups were also made to go through a series of other tests.

The research had its prime focus on the DMN or Default Mode Network which is actually a vast network that runs across the brain connecting the different sections of the brain to one another. Scientists could identify a major difference with respect to connectivity in the brain between the group of tea drinkers and the group of non-tea drinkers.

The research report read: "The observations in this study partially support the hypothesis that tea drinking has positive effects on brain organization and gives rise to greater efficiency in functional and structural connectivity due to increased global network efficiency found in the brain structure of tea drinkers, but no significant enhancement in functional connectivity. As hypothesized, tea drinking leads to less leftward asymmetry in structural connectivity between hemispheres."

However, this was a small-scale study conducted on just 36 subjects in total and had only 6 females in the group. Therefore, the results need to be backed by a more comprehensive and large-scale research.

Source: NDTV