Tea May Reduce Your Dementia Risk

There is no cure for dementia, but scientists are focusing on simple lifestyle changes, including what people eat and drink, that may help to prevent dementia. One beverage that is getting a lot of attention from scientists worldwide is tea.

For example, a research team in Singapore conducting a long-term study discovered that drinking tea regularly reduced cognitive decline in older adults by 50 percent and potentially up to 86 percent for people who were genetically predisposed to the disease.

“The data from our study suggests that a simple and inexpensive lifestyle measure such as daily tea drinking can reduce a person’s risk of developing neurocognitive disorders in late life,” Assistant Professor Feng Lei, from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine who led the research team, said in a news release.

The researchers followed 957 older adults who were 55 years old and over and were part of the Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study. Of this group, 69 percent frequently drank tea. The investigators began gathering data from participants in 2003 and followed up every two years until 2010 to collect more information on cognitive status, tea consumption, lifestyle, medical conditions, as well as physical and social activities.

The researchers also conducted genetic tests on the participants and found that even people who carried the APOE4 gene, which scientists believe raises the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, were at a lower risk of developing dementia, compared with those who also carried the APOE4 gene but did not drink tea.

Whether it’s black, green, or oolong, the type of tea participants drank did not matter, according to the study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging. All varieties of tea were associated with a reduced risk of developing dementia.

Reducing Dementia Risk With Tea, Berries, and Red Wine

One reason why researchers are focusing on tea because it contains flavonoids, which are natural plant chemicals that give fruits, vegetables, and flowers their vibrant colors. Flavonoids provide health benefits because of their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. Scientists believe flavonoids can also help to protect the brain.

One new study found that flavonoid-rich foods and drinks, such as berries, tea, and red wine can lessen the likelihood of developing dementia. The study, conducted by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, provided evidence that eating more berries and drinking more tea, specifically, may lower the risk of dementia and cognitive decline.

The Queen’s University investigators wanted to find out how diets affect the risk of developing dementia. So, they examined dietary data from the UK Biobank of over 120,000 participants between the ages of 40 and 70.

The research team followed the participants an average of 9.2 years. During this time, there were 882 participants who developed dementia. Participants reported consuming an average of 4.3 servings a day of flavonoid-rich foods, of which an average of 2.7 servings a day were from tea. The team also noted that participants who consumed the highest amount of flavonoids in their diet were more physically active and had a lower body mass index.

According to Professor Aedín Cassidy, who led the study, the team’s findings showed that consuming six additional servings of flavonoid-rich foods per day, particularly berries, tea, and red wine, was associated with a 28 percent lower risk of dementia. The findings were most noticeable in groups at greater risk for dementia, namely participants who had a high genetic risk, those with hypertension, and individuals with symptoms of depression.

The researchers believe flavonoids decrease the dementia risk by reducing neuroinflammation and increasing blood flow to the brain.

“These results provide a clear public health message as they suggest that a simple measure such as increasing daily consumption of flavonoid-rich foods may lower dementia risk, especially in populations at high risk,” Dr. Amy Jennings, the study’s first author, said in a press release. “Currently, there is no effective treatment for the disease, so preventive interventions to improve health and quality of life, and reduce social and economic costs, should continue to be a major public health priority.”

The study noted that around one million people in the United Kingdom (UK) are living with a form of dementia, and the number is expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040. In the United States, nearly seven million people are living with Alzheimer’s dementia in 2024, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, which expects the number to climb to nearly 14 million by 2060.

Dementia becomes more common as people get older. While there are several different forms of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, is the most common.

People living with dementia experience symptoms, such as memory loss, poor judgment, and confusion. They eventually have trouble handling money, paying bills, and managing other daily living activities on their own. As the disease progresses, people find themselves having difficulty speaking, understanding and expressing thoughts, or reading and writing.

While the study, published in JAMA Network Open, highlighted the effects flavonoids can have against dementia, it also mentioned that flavonoids play a role in decreasing cognitive decline and chronic heart conditions.

Although the study found red wine may contain flavonoids, drinking too much alcohol overall can cancel the positive effects it has on the body. That’s because alcohol is a “direct neurotoxin,” a substance that can harm the nervous system, Dr. Richard Restak, a neurologist who was not involved in the study, told HuffPostUK.

In fact, Dr. Restak said consuming alcohol in large quantities can create a form of dementia called “Korsakoff’s syndrome,” which is “marked by a severe loss of recent memory” and results from the direct effect of alcohol on the brain.

“I strongly suggest that if you are 65 years old or older, that you completely and permanently eliminate alcohol from your diet,” Dr. Restak, author of How To Prevent Dementia, told HuffPostUK.

Researchers, however, do not give such warnings about tea. In most studies about tea and its ability to prevent dementia, scientists encourage consistently drinking tea. In fact, most researchers observe that those who had the best results during a study period drank tea every day.

Source Links:

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tea-dementia-risk-flavonoids_uk_66eaa5c8e4b00648275b3f52
https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/2024/Consumingberriesteaandredwinemayreducetheriskofdementianewstudyshows.html
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2823676?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamanetworkopen.2024.34136
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.13809#
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers-and-dementia/what-dementia-symptoms-types-and-diagnosis#
https://www.health.harvard.edu/alzheimers-disease/regular-tea-drinking-linked-with-dementia-prevention
https://news.nus.edu.sg/daily-cuppa-keeps-dementia-at-bay/