Regular consumption of tea lowers the risk of cognitive impairment in older adults by 50%, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging.

“A cup of tea a day can keep dementia away, and this is especially so for those who are genetically predisposed to the debilitating disease,” said lead author Dr. Lei Feng, from the Department of Psychological Medicine at the National University of Singapore.

The long-term study involved 957 community-living Chinese elderly (aged 55 years or older) who were cognitively intact at baseline.

“We collected tea consumption information at baseline from 2003 to 2005, and ascertained incident cases of neurocognitive disorders from 2006 to 2010,” the researchers said.

“While the study was conducted on Chinese elderly, the results could apply to other races as well. Our findings have important implications for dementia prevention.”

“Despite high quality drug trials, effective pharmacological therapy for neurocognitive disorders such as dementia remains elusive and current prevention strategies are far from satisfactory.”

Dr. Feng and his colleagues from the National University of Singapore found that regular consumption of tea lowers the risk of cognitive decline in the elderly by 50%, while carriers of the genetic variant APOE-e4 — which puts them at higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease — may experience a reduction in cognitive impairment risk by as much as 86%.

“Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. 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,” Dr. Feng explained.

The authors also discovered that the neuroprotective role of tea consumption is not limited to a particular type of tea — so long as the tea is brewed from tea leaves, such as green, black or oolong tea.

“Based on current knowledge, this long term benefit of tea consumption is due to the bioactive compounds in tea leaves, such as catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins and L-theanine,” Dr. Feng said.

“These compounds exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential and other bioactive properties that may protect the brain from vascular damage and neurodegeneration.”

“Our understanding of the detailed biological mechanisms is still very limited so we do need more research to find out definitive answers.”

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L. Feng et al. 2016. Tea consumption reduces the incidence of neurocognitive disorders: Findings from the Singapore longitudinal aging study. J Nutr Health Aging 20: 1002; doi: 10.1007/s12603-016-0687-0