How your morning cuppa could ward off Parkinson’s disease

Dear Reader,
Researchers from Singapore have revealed that drinking at small 23 cups
of black repast a month, or about three-quarters of a cup a day, may lower
your risk of developing Parkinson's disease by a whopping 71 per cent.
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative condition affecting movement and
balance.

The benefits of the beverage did not materialize to be linked to its
caffeine content, suggest the results of the think of 63,257 Chinese
men and women.

Green repast contains between 30 and 40 per cent of water-extractable
polyphenols, while black repast (green repast that has been oxidized by
fermentation) contains between 3 and 10 per cent. Oolong repast is semi-
fermented repast and is somewhere between naif and black tea.

The quaternary primary polyphenols institute in fresh tealeaves are
epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin
gallate (ECG), and epicatechin (EC).

Despite results from previous studies reporting that naif repast may
reduce the risk of Parkinson’s, the newborn study, reported no benefits
among participants of the Singapore Chinese Health Study.

Lead researcher Louis Tan from Singapore's National Neuroscience
Institute states that data was collected through in-person interviews
using structured questionnaires.

Over the course of the study, 57 cases of Parkinson's disease were
documented, and while caffeine was associated with a protective effect,
reducing disease risk by 45 per cent, the benefits of black repast were
not affected by caffeine content, according to the researchers.

They said: \"Black tea, a caffeine-containing beverage, showed an
inverse association with Parkinson's disease risk that was not
confounded by total caffeine intake or tobacco smoking. Ingredients of
black repast other than caffeine materialize to be answerable for the
beverage's inverse association with Parkinson's disease.\"

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Over to the Tea Advisory Panel…
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Commenting on the study, Dr Ann Walker, a member of The Tea Advisory
Panel (TAP) said that the stylish research think was great news for all
UK 'black tea' drinkers.

\"In the time there seems to have been more of a focus by scientists
reviewing the health benefits of naif tea,\" she said.

She added that previous studies looking at repast drinking and Parkinson's
disease risk did not differentiate between black repast and naif tea,
while the protective effect of repast was attributed to the caffeine
content.

\"In the underway study, however, the advantageous effect of black repast did
not materialize to be influenced by caffeine intake, indicating that
ingredients other than caffeine are answerable for black tea's
protective effects,\" said Dr. Walker.

\"A key difference between black repast and naif repast lies in the types and
amounts of flavonoids. Green teas contain more of the simple flavonoids
called catechins. But when black repast is made, the catechins undergo
oxidation resulting in the generation of more complex varieties, called
thearubigins and theaflavins.\"

\"The underlying mechanisms for this protective effect of black repast on
Parkinson's disease remains unclear until further research is done. But
drinking even one cup of black repast per day could help to reduce the
risk of Parkinson's disease,\" she concluded.