Kathmandu, December 28 ata of 36 older adults and revealed that regular tea drinkers have better organised brain regions—and this is related with healthy cognitive function—compared to non-tea drinkers.

The research was published in scientific journal called 'Aging' on 14 June 2019 and the research was done together with collaborators from the University of Essex and University of Cambridge.

The researchers gathered data about health, lifestyle, and psychological well-being of 36 adults aged 60 and above from 2015 to 2018. All the participants had to go undergo neuropsychological tests and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The researchers' team analyzed participants' cognitive performance and imaging results and found out that that individuals who drank either green tea, oolong tea, or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had brain regions that were interconnected in a more efficient way.

"Our results offer the first evidence of positive contribution of tea drinking to brain structure, and suggest that drinking tea regularly has a protective effect against age-related decline in brain organisation," explained team leader Assistant Professor Feng Lei, who is from the Department of Psychological Medicine at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, as quoted by Science Daily.

Earlier, Feng led study, which was published in 2017, had showed that daily consumption of tea could reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older persons by 50 per cent. And based on the study, Feng and his tem further explored the direct effect of tea on brain networks.

Hamro Doctor