This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.
Green tea drinkers show less disability with age: study Elderly adults who drink 4-5 cups of green tea daily may stay more agile and independent than their peers according to a Japanese study
Green tea contains antioxidant chemicals that may help ward off the cell damage that can lead to disease. Researchers have been studying green tea's effect on everything from cholesterol to the risk of certain cancers, with mixed results so far. For the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers decided to examine the question of whether green tea drinkers have a lower risk of frailty and disability as they grow older. Yasutake Tomata of the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and his colleagues followed nearly 14,000 adults aged 65 or older for three years. They found those who drank the most green tea were the least likely to develop "functional disability," or problems with daily activities or basic needs, such as dressing or bathing. Specifically, almost 13 per cent of adults who drank less than a cup of green tea per day became functionally disabled, compared with just over 7 per cent of people who drank at least five cups a day. "Green tea consumption is significantly associated with a lower risk of incident functional disability, even after adjustment for possible confounding factors," Tomata and his colleagues wrote. The study did not prove that green tea alone kept people spry as they grew older. Green-tea lovers generally had healthier diets, including more fish, vegetables and fruit, as well as more education, lower smoking rates, fewer heart attacks and strokes, and greater mental sharpness. They also tended to be more socially active and have more friends and family to rely on. But even with those factors accounted for, green tea itself was tied to a lower disability risk, the researchers said. People who drank at least five cups a day were one-third less likely to develop disabilities than those who had less than a cup per day. Those people who averaged three or four cups a day had a 25 per cent lower risk.
