Green Tea May Help Brain Cope With Sleep Disorders

- THURSDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — Green tea may counter the
cognitive problems that come with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a new
study suggests.
Green tea polyphenols (GTP) appear to negate the increased oxidative
stress that affects brain tissue in areas involved in learning and memory
in people with OSA, reports the study, published in the second issue for
May of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine. GTPs are known to possess antioxidant properties.
The conclusion is based on giving drinking water laced with GTP to rats
intermittently deprived of oxygen during 12-hour “night” cycles — a
condition that mimics the intermittent hypoxia (IH) that humans with OSA
experience. The rats that drank green tea-treated water performed
significantly better in a maze than rats that consumed plain water.
“GTP-treated rats exposed to IH displayed significantly greater spatial
bias for the previous hidden platform position, indicating that GTPs are
capable of attenuating IH-induced spatial learning deficits,” lead author
Dr. David Gozal, director of Kosair Children's Hospital Research Institute
at the University of Louisville, said in a prepared statement. He added
that GTPs “may represent a potential interventional strategy for patients”
with sleep-disordered breathing.
“OSA has been increasingly recognized as a serious and frequent health
condition with potential long-term morbidities that include learning and
psychological disabilities,” Gozal said. “A growing body of evidence
suggests that the adverse neurobehavioral consequences imposed by IH stem,
at least in part, from oxidative stress and inflammatory signaling
cascades.”
More information
The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has
more about green tea.