April 29, 2022

Summary: From helping to improve attention and staving off cognitive decline, to improving immune system function, researchers explore the many health benefits tea has to offer.

Source: Pollack Communications

Leading nutrition scientists from around the world convened yesterday to present the latest evidence supporting the role of tea in promoting optimal health.

With new findings from the international scientific community consistently lending credibility to tea’s healthy properties, speakers at the symposium provided a comprehensive update of recent research on the benefits of tea consumption on human health.

As the second most consumed beverage in the world next to water, over 159 million Americans are drinking tea on any given day.  

“There is a growing body of research from around the world demonstrating that drinking tea can enhance human health in many ways,” said symposium chair, Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, an active Professor Emeritus in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

“True teas – which include black, green, white, oolong, and dark – can contribute significantly to the promotion of public health. Evidence presented at this symposium reveals results – ranging from suggestive to compelling – about the benefits of tea on cancer, cardiometabolic disease, cognitive performance, and immune function.”

The Chemistry in Your Cup

Tea contains flavonoids, naturally occurring compounds that have antioxidant properties. Tea flavonoids provide bioactive compounds that help to neutralize free radicals which may damage elements in the body, such as genetic material and lipids, and contribute to chronic disease. Tea also contains L-theanine, an amino acid that is for the most part, uniquely found in tea.

Tea and Immune Function

“Tea may help support your immune system and increase your body’s resistance to illnesses,” says Dayong Wu, MD, PhD, Nutritional Immunology Laboratory in the USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. 

“In the event you do become sick, tea can help your body respond to illness in a more efficient way by ridding itself of the infection and may also alleviate its severity when they happen.”

In a comprehensive review of the published data on this topic presented at the symposium, Wu concluded that green tea/catechins have been shown to help the host fight against a variety of pathogens by decreasing the pathogen’s ability to infect the host and helping the host’s immune system spring into action.

Green tea/catechins have also been shown to improve autoimmune disorders by promoting self-tolerance, suppressing autoantigen-induced inflammatory attack, and enhancing tissue repair.

Tea and Cognitive Function

When it comes to cognitive function, it turns out tea may offer significant benefits. “There is strong evidence that tea and its constituents seem to be beneficial under conditions of stress. The most profound cognitive domain that tea seems to act upon is attention and alertness,” explains Louise Dye, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Behaviour at the University of Leeds. 

“With these effects on attention, tea is an optimal beverage of choice during a time of elevated stress and burnout worldwide.”

In her review of published research on this subject, Dye revealed that evidence from randomized controlled trials supports the conclusion that tea consumption can produce short term acute beneficial effects on attention measured by objective tests such as the attention switching test and on subjective reports of alertness. Studies consistently show beneficial effects of a high dose of L-theanine, together with a lower dose of caffeine, on attention task performance.

These findings indicate that the unique combination of caffeine and L-theanine that is found in tea can improve attention.

Tea and the Prevention of Cognitive Decline

With no effective drug treatments for dementia, prevention is key. It is estimated that 40 to 50% of dementia could be prevented through changes in lifestyle factors.

In a review of published research on tea and cognitive decline, Jonathan Hodgson, PhD, Professor at the Institute for Nutrition Research at Edith Cowan University, explains that “there is growing evidence that as little as 1 to 2 cups of tea daily could significantly reduce risk of vascular dementia and potentially Alzheimer’s disease.”

Recent high-quality data from long-term, prospective cohort studies indicate that higher intakes of tea – starting at as little as 1 cup daily and up to 5 to 6 daily – are associated with reduced risk for dementia. Data from these studies also find that moderate intakes of the flavonoids present in tea are associated with reduced risk for cognitive decline.

Maximal benefits of tea may be obtained from as little as 2 to 4 cups per day, with little additional benefits with higher intakes.

Results of these studies also suggest that the protection provided may be strongest for protection against vascular dementia, one of the most common forms of dementia.

Tea and Cancer Prevention See also

In examining existing data on tea and cancer prevention, higher intakes of tea consumptions may reduce the risk of some cancers. There is evidence that tea flavonoids may act via antioxidant, anti-angiogenesis, and anti-inflammatory mechanisms as well modifying the profile of gut microbiota. Tea is a beverage rich in flavonoids, which are bioactive compounds with several anticarcinogenic properties in experimental studies.  Suggestive evidence indicates tea consumption may reduce risk of biliary tract, breast, endometrial, liver, and oral cancer.

 “While more research needs to be done to determine the exact dosage, the conclusion we can share is that higher intakes of tea consumptions may reduce the risk of some forms of cancer,” says Raul Zamora-Ros, PhD, Principal Investigator at the Unit of Nutrition and Cancer at IDIBELL.

Tea and Cardiovascular Health

Cardiometabolic diseases, like diabetes and heart disease, are the number one cause of death worldwide, and tea consumption may be inversely associated with adverse cardiometabolic outcomes, according to results from population studies.

Based on an extensive and variety of scientific research designs, 2-cups of unsweet tea per day has the potential to mitigate cardiometabolic disease risk and progression in adults.

In an extensive review on cardiovascular health and tea, research demonstrated each cup of daily tea consumption was associated with an average 1.5% lower risk of all-cause mortality, 4% lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, 2% lower risk of CVD events, and 4% lower risk of stoke events.

“When you look at all the different biomarkers and mechanisms that tea is affecting, this bountiful beverage is one which consumers can easily add to better their diet and create a healthier and longer life for themselves,” explains Taylor Wallace, PhD, Principle and CEO at the Think Healthy Group and a Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at George Mason University.

Tea and Dietary Guidance

To support the growing evidence of tea as a health promoting beverage, clearer recommendations are needed in the current US dietary guidance. “There may be other herbals and botanical products that can deliver health benefits, but none of them are as systematically studied as Camellia sinensis – true tea,” says Mario Feruzzi, PhD, Professor and Chief of the Section of Developmental Nutrition in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

“With true teas – white, green, black and oolong – you’re dealing with thousands of years of traditional use, 60-70 years of systematic study which, in the last 15-20 years, has ramped up to the point where we have very definitive data.”

Dietary guidance will provide more accurate and relevant direction for consumers in the context of the diversity of tea and other flavonoid containing foods.

Reference From: https://neurosciencenews.com/tes-cognition-20482/

Family routine and strong community seen as important for young people

Chaise Combs grew up in Drayton Valley, Alberta and said living in an oil and gas town has shaped his life. (Colin Hall/CBC)

Growing up in an oil town, Chaise Combs saw the effects of the industry’s ups and downs firsthand.

Almost every member of his immediate family, except for his grandmother, worked in the oil and gas sector in Drayton Valley, Alta., — a town approximately 150 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.

Combs, now 28, said his family never went without when times were tough, but when times were good, he was often left to fend for himself.

“With my dad, I never got to see him. He was away working a lot. But he did like to buy me things with the money he made working on the rigs so that was good, I guess,” he said.

Combs’s experience is reflected in recent research that examined the impacts boom-and-bust economies, such as Drayton Valley’s, can have on youth mental health.

Led by Michael Ungar, a Canada Research Chair in child, family and community resilience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, researchers interviewed more than 600 people for a study called Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE). 

Oil town

The oil industry touches every part of Drayton Valley. The town has a population of less than 7,000 and exists, predominantly, because oil was discovered there in 1953.

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The resource is so pervasive that an oil derrick attraction welcomes people when they pull off the highway into the community.

But the reliance of a town built on oil means that residents — including young people — are often left to the whims of the peaks and valleys of the energy sector.

Living in an oil gas town did shape my life quite a bit in ways I probably wasn’t aware of at the time.- Chaise Combs

“Living in an oil and gas town did shape my life quite a bit in ways I probably wasn’t aware of at the time,” Combs said.

With his father always working, he recalls not feeling supported by his guidance counsellor or his grandparents, who he said didn’t know how to give him advice about school.

“I felt often alone and without a support network,” Combs said.

Combs said he started doing marijuana when he was 14, started drinking when he was in high school and moved onto hard drugs, such as cocaine, crack and meth. While he acknowledges the choices that he made were his alone, he said transient workers coming in and out of the town may have played a role. He has been clean for more than five years now.

Combs, a research participant in Ungar’s study, is giving back to his community by working to set up a youth advisory committee for Drayton Valley’s town council.

Research findings

Ungar found booms and busts can have profound impacts on family dynamics, such as whether parents are at home, whether they can afford to enrol their children in extracurricular activities and what futures young people choose to pursue.

“You see stress on families and you see stress on kids,” he said.

You see stress on families and you see stress on kids.- Michael Ungar

“When things are booming in Drayton Valley, we heard that young people still reported mental health challenges because, of course, it stressed their families. Their parents are working super long hours. All of that has an effect on kids’ sense of attachments and who’s— looking after them. Whether it’s boom or bust, what you see is kind of a flow through of that, an effect on kids themselves.”

When there were lulls in the sector, Ungar said that young people chose to explore other opportunities.

“As the economics of the oil and gas industry changed, you saw young people opting and saying that they were going to go look for service industry jobs or they were going to go and look for government jobs or move into other kinds of educational pathways that didn’t necessarily track into the oil and gas industry.”

The research further revealed the importance of family routine and strong community ties for young people.

“What we found was that for young people who showed a sense of connections to their peer group or indeed a sense of a collective identity — ‘I am part of this community’ — they tended to be able to weather some of the stressors on their families much better,” Ungar said, adding they were less likely to use alcohol or drugs and more likely to commit to education.

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The research could be more relevant now — the energy sector has rebounded in recent months and the price of oil has been hovering around $100 a barrel.

Research in South Africa

The research was not limited to Canada. Ungar and his team also examined what impacts a coal liquefaction plant in Secunda, South Africa, had on young people.

Linda Theron, co-principal investigator of RYSE, said the community attracts a migrant population because of job opportunities.

“So there is perhaps not as much community cohesiveness as one would hope to see. We know that community cohesiveness really matters for young people’s mental health,” she said.

But Theron said that researchers heard that youth were faring well because they had supportive families, caregivers, extended families and other forms of support.

While there are vast differences between the histories and cultures of Drayton Valley and Secunda, South Africa, Theron said one similarity was glaringly clear.

“Caring family matters. Enabling peers matter. Opportunities to access safe recreational spaces that are affordable matter.” 

Ripple effects of 2014

When the price of oil crashed in 2014, Drayton Valley felt the impacts.

Mayor Nancy Dodds said business shuttered and residents lost their homes, and she noticed the repercussions that had on young people in the town.

“They see that there’s times that their parents have made good, easy money and these times have been great. But then with that comes the times of that underlying uncertainty. So I see that when the youth are seeing that and they’re hearing their parents talk about it…. I think that it really puts worry and doubt in their minds.”

The town has been evolving the last few years. Businesses have moved away from oil and gas and are dabbling more in other sectors, such as hemp and marijuana. The town is also offering a free tuition program to encourage young people to pursue post-secondary education.

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Dodds is buoyed by Ungar’s research, saying it will show the town ways that it can support young people and their wellbeing.

Ungar said he is proud their data has been used by organizations in Drayton Valley to think about how they can create spaces where young people can come together and feel like they belong.

Reference From: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/family-stress-lack-of-attachments-boom-and-busts-youth-mental-health-1.6427719