Green tea can be advantageous to our
health, but new studies show that it can also improve cognitive*
functions, especially working memory*. Green tea extract also expands
the brain's effective connectivity, or “the casual influence that
one brain area exerts over another.” To test this concept, men
volunteered to solve working memory challenges after drinking fluids
with green tea extract in them. During these challenges, scientists
used an MRI* to assess brain activity. The study showed that green
tea extract may actually intellectually benefit us, even possibly
going so far as to treat cognitive disabilities in neuropsychiatric*
disorders, like dementia.
*Cognitive- of or relating to the
mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding
through thought, experience, and the senses
*Working
memory- the part of short-term memory that is concerned with
immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing
*MRI-
magnetic resonance imaging
*Neuropsychiatric-
psychiatry relating mental or emotional disturbance to disordered
brain function
NOS
Themes:
- Science is collaborative; Professor Christoph Beglinger (from the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland) and Professor Stefan Borgwardt (from the Psychiatric University Clinics) teamed up for this research
- Role of motivation and curiosity; people who drink green tea will be glad they read this article
This is a really interesting development! Nice summary! Through additional research, I discovered that other benefits of green tea include improved physical performance and a decrease in probability of contracting a dental-related disease. Also, green tea can lower one's chances of getting Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Type II Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and various types of cancer. Another great aspect of green tea is that it generally increases life expectancy. The reason that consuming green tea is beneficial is because it is loaded with antioxidants and polyphenols which reduce the formation of free radicals in the body, thus protecting the cells and molecules from sustaining much damage. I obtained all of these facts from this website http://authoritynutrition.com/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-green-tea/. It seems that green tea is something like a super-beverage; it can heal, it can prevent disease, and it also tastes pretty good!
ReplyDeleteGreat article! I was excited to read it because I absolutely love drinking green tea. After reading about the health benefits of drinking it, I was curious to research it's negative effects. For the most part, I read a lot about its great uses, but I did find some negative side effects of drinking green tea. For some people, green tea consumption can cause stomach aches and constipation. In addition, green tea has caused liver issues in some rare cases. Also, green tea lovers should know that drinking too much green tea can cause many side effects due to its caffeine. These include: "headache, nervousness, sleep problems, vomiting, diarrhea, irritability, irregular heartbeat, tremor, heartburn, dizziness, ringing in the ears, convulsions, and confusion" (WebMD). Other than these listed side effects, green tea is known to cause reduced absorption of iron from food and can even be fatal due to the high caffeine levels. As long as the consumed green tea is at a controlled amount(under 5 cups a day), it is perfectly safe to drink and very beneficial to humans' health, as this blog post mentioned.
ReplyDeleteLink:
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-960-GREEN%20TEA.aspx?activeIngredientId=960&activeIngredientName=GREEN%20TEA
This article is very interesting! I previously knew of green tea's role in preventing illnesses, increasing life expectancy, and also it's other benefits to healthy living. I think it is very interesting that it may be able to improve memory. Maybe some day they could test it on students to see if it would improve test grades. I will most definitely have to try drinking green tea before tests from now on!
ReplyDeleteGreen tea tastes great as well! Which is great because it can also aid in healthy weight loss, and can aid type 2 diabetes. Here is the link I found for this:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269538.php
ReplyDeleteTo learn more about the green tea, I visited http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/960.html.
ReplyDeleteI learned that green tea is used to improve mental alertness and thinking as well as used for weight loss and to treat stomach disorders, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, osteoporosis,, and solid tumor cancers. Some people think green tea prevents cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, solid tumor cancer, skin cancers and many others. On the other hand, more than 5 cups of green tea is unsafe. It can cause headache, nervousness, vomiting, heartburn, difficulty in sleeping, diarrhea, dizziness, confusion, etc. Too much of green tea can be fatal because it reduces the amount of iron absorbed from the food. People should be careful not to consume more than five cups of green tea a day.
I very much enjoyed this article. I found it interesting because I usually have tea before class, but that is usually just because I don't like coffee and the caffeine wakes me up. It excites me that this can also improve brain activity along with the other health benefits green tea gives.
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