Tea Boost for Brain Juice?

Apparently my memory was not up to scratch today as I plainly forgot that I had something pressing to do...It turns out writing this was that thing, so prepare for a rushed and plainly muddled attempt to write this blog post in record time with very little attention applied to sources, if only just to make the Hulk angry. (Despite what he says I like him that way.)

Given my personal problems with cognitive recollection, I thought it might be pertinent to flick the kettle on and talk a little about the little grey cells to get your synapses and mine shooting.

Researchers at the University of Basel have been conducting research on the effects of Green Tea on memory function and have discovered some startling results. Green Tea has often been cited as a so called "Super Food", or should that be "Super Drink" because of its many varied health benefits. Weight loss, reduced anxiety and even stopping the growth of cancer cells have been linked to the teas active ingredients and now research suggest "memory aid" can be added to that list.

Researchers separated volunteers into two groups and made both groups test a different drink. One half received a beverage with 27.5g of Green Tea extract, the others a whey protein formula designed to taste of Green Tea. While the subjects were drinking, researchers watched scans of the patients brains using a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (fMRI) and followed this up with asking the volunteers to complete tasks that required use of the active working memory.

The results of the tests showed a distinctly different process in the way in the frontal lobe and the parietal lobe interact with each other in the patients that had the Green Tea extract. What does this all mean you might ask? Well first let me explain a little about how the brain works.

The Frontal lobe of the brain is home to the most advanced thinking abilities and sensibly resides in the front of the brain, while the Parietal lobe which is largely involved in processing sensory information and language is just behind it towards the back of the brain. What the study indicates is that the presence of Green Tea aids in the interaction between these two lobes, producing a increased ability to recall information. 

This does all sound great but before you start running to the shops it must be said that all new groundbreaking discoveries should be taken with a grain of salt. This study was carried out in very limited numbers and would have to be carried out on a much larger scale to garner more conclusive results, but what they have so far is very interesting.

The researchers were however using a green tea extract rather than cups of green tea because extract is considerably more concentrated and will therefore contain far more epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the active ingredient suspected to be responsibly for the teas beneficial effects, therefore you would have to drink a lot of cups to feel the same results.

All this does mean that unfortunately that a cup of the green stuff won't make you eidetic, but I don't know, several cups just might. I know for sure that it will make you need to pee and the toilet is a great place to think, so I'm pretty sure that it would all work out. So just remember, Green tea is already proven to have a whole heap of medical benefits for you anyways, so there is no reason not to try it. Oh and if you start drinking it apparently, you're sure not to forget.

Until Then.

P.S. - Sorry is this is a little short.

Source:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2014/04/14/study-green-tea-boosts-working-memory/