Brain Antioxidants And EGCG

The Thinker, 1881

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Brain antioxidants, aging brains, and EGCG from green tea

Every culture has treasured the gathered wisdom of their elders. We all mourned the loss when their brains become too damaged by age to function. And we ask how much more could wise people have contributed if they were functional longer.

So we look for ways to keep this wisdom alive.

One way is to work with preventing age-related damage to the brain.

The brain can be damaged from free radicals because of its high metabolic needs and fatty acid structures. Thus a great deal of research has concentrated on the usefulness of antioxidants in protecting brain function over a lifetime.

Researchers have recently tested EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), the primary polyphenol flavonoid catechin antioxidant in green tea in an animal study of aging brains.

For 30 days, oral intake of EGCG was compared with placebo saline.

EGCG effects show brain antioxidant improvement

Researchers found that EGCG improved the following enzymatic antioxidants in the brain:

• superoxide dismutase

• glutathione peroxidase

• glutathione reductase

• catalase

• and, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase,

and the following non-enzymatic antioxidants:

• tocopherol (Vitamin E)

• ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)

• and, glutathione.

EGCG also reduced free radical damage as shown in lowering malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl levels in the brain (Srividhya R, Attenuation of senescence-induced oxidative exacerbations in aged rat brain by (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, December 2007).

This study is preliminary and more work is needed to track functional benefits for the brain from EGCG from green tea.

But a wise person once said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Perhaps it can also begin with one cup of green tea.


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