Researchers: Black Tea Extract Extends Lifespan
Research and media have been significantly focused on Green Tea, highlighting its health benefits. Black Tea (the regular tea consumed at homes) has now been researched and proved that it can directly influence the lifespan. Specifically, experiments on fruit flies have shown that, more than 4% extension of lifespan is possible.
Gerontology researchers have been increasingly addressing the relationship between diet and aging. It is shown that moderate calorie restriction or altering the composition of nutrients in the diet affects the lifespan and aging of organisms.
Dietary antioxidants have become popular supplements in prevention of aging. Briefly, oxygen we intake generates ‘reactive oxygen species’ (ROS), which is one of the causes for aging. Dietary antioxidants work towards scavenging the ROS in cells and build a defense base to limit the formation of new free radicals and slow down the ageing process.
A group of researchers from China used fruit flies for their experiment. Three groups of 200 flies each were used, with one group getting no BTE (black tea extract) diet, while the other two groups getting 5 & 10 mg BTE/ml diet. Food intake level was monitored using average body weight of the flies. This was done to make sure that due to a BTE diet, the food intake of the flies do not go down, thus altering results. The flies also were introduced to 10% fat diet with or without BTE.
Results from the experiments indicated that, max lifespan increased more than 4% for the BTE treated groups as compared to non BTE receiving groups. The mean lifespan for non BTE group was 51 days, while the 5 mg BTE/ml group had 55 days and 10 mg BTE/ml group had 56 days. Statistical analysis indicated that, the BTE treatment had significant influence on the lifespan, however there was no significant difference between the 5 mg BTE/ml and 10 mg BTE/ml group.
Adding 10% fatty acids derived from lard can reduce the maximum lifespan of these flies to 15 days. However supplementing 10 mg/ml of BTE into the diet changed the lifespan to 28 days (an 87% increase). While these results do not directly connect to humans, the benefits of BTE consumption are well demonstrated.
Journal Reference: doi:10.1016/j.exger.2009.09.004
Image Credits: Flickr
