Thursday, October 18, 2007

Israeli research and brain power!

Let's hear it for the amazing researchers at Israel's Technion University - they have discovered some amazingly wonderful side effects of having a nice relaxing cup of tea!

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Researchers at the Technion Institute of Science in Haifa have shown that feeding green tea extract to mice with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease protects brain cells from dying, and helps 'rescue' already damaged neurons in the brain. Numerous studies around the world have suggested that drinking green tea may help support the brain as people get older. But now comes evidence that it can actually repair brain cells!

Tea consumption is inversely correlated with the incidence of dementia, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, which may help to explain why there are significantly lower incidence rates of age-related neurological disorders among Asians than in Europeans or Americans.

But, according to Dr. Silvia Mandel of the Technion's Eve Topf Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, the study she led was one of the first to show how the main antioxidant polyphenol of green tea extract, EGCG, actually works when it gets access into the brain. Mandel presented her findings last month in Washington DC to a rapt audience of colleagues at the Fourth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health.

"Researchers have been actively searching for better ways to support brain cell repair for many years," said tea and health expert Dr. Carol Greenwood who attended the DC conference.

"This finding that green tea, a natural product consumed by millions of people every day, can help repair them is especially exciting."

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