Green Tea Improves Cognitive Abilities In Down Syndrome
Author: Nia Rouseberg
Time for reading: ~2
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
The effect is due to a specific ingredient in green tea. It is documented by a research team in brain research.
An ingredient in green tea helps improve cognitive abilities in people with Down syndrome, according to a study presented in The Lancet Neurology .
It included 84 people with the syndrome on a voluntary basis, whose intellectual progress was monitored for a year in three tests after 3, 6 and 12 months from the beginning of the initiative. Through the tests, a detailed assessment of memory and analysis of behavior was performed.
According to researchers, this effect of green tea is due to epigallocatechin galaxy, which lasted half a year after stopping regular drinking.
The results of two groups were compared: one of the two consumed decaffeinated green tea, but with 45% content of epigallocatechin gallate, the other - placebo. All volunteers were included in a special training program aimed at improving their cognitive abilities . In the tests, participants in the first group showed better abilities than placebo recipients.
According to the researchers, green tea or specifically its specific ingredient cannot be considered as a medicine for people with Down syndrome , but their intake can be a means to improve their quality of life, as long as the results in subsequent research.
It is already known that epigallocatechin gallate has anti-cancer properties, but now for the first time a similar effect on brain function is found.
Epigallocatechin gallate affects the way neurons connect with each other in the brain, the researchers said.
This is the first scientific study to report improved cognitive abilities in people with Down syndrome, said Mara Dirsen , lead author and researcher at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona.
Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal disease, which is associated with intellectual deficits. Its frequency is 1 per 1000 people according to the World Health Organization.
Another name for it is trisomy 21, placed precisely because of the presence of an additional third copy in the 21st pair of chromosomes - in humans there are 23 pairs of chromosomes , half coming from the father, the other - from the mother. People with Down syndrome also suffer from many health problems.
In a previous study, Dirsen and her team found that suppression of a specific DYRK1A gene improved brain function and development in mice with similar trisomy . Such gene therapy is not applicable to humans, the researchers said, and so they returned to studying the effects of green tea.
Improving memory, verbal communication, the ability to adapt , are the areas in which people with Down syndrome have shown significant progress in the present study. In other areas it is less significant, but there is also one, emphasize the scientific team.
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