Drinking this amount of tea reduces the risk of having Alzheimer’s, a study confirms

Diet plays an important role in the prevention of dementia, and in particular Alzheimer’s disease. This hot drink can help.

Food is our best medicine. Although dementia – particularly Alzheimer’s disease – is incurable, the risk of suffering from it can be reduced through nutrition. Certain foods should be avoided: alcohol, sugars, processed meats; and others should be favored, such as nuts, fatty fish, olive oil… and tea according to several studies.

The most recent, published in January 2025 in the journal Nature, analyzed the impact of green tea consumption on the brains of nearly 9,000 Japanese aged over 65. Brain MRIs were carried out to observe in particular a part of the brain, called the white matter, in which lesions are increasingly common with aging, and have been associated with dementia and in particular Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers discovered that people who consumed the most green tea had fewer lesions in the brain’s white matter. This therefore suggests that “consumption of green tea, particularly three or more cups per day, may help prevent dementia,” the study authors conclude.

This study thus sheds new light on this “poorly understood” protective effect. Until now, researchers have explained the benefits of green tea on the brain by its richness in polyphenols, an antioxidant substance which has “neuroprotective effects”. Green tea has also been reported to reduce blood pressure, and “hypertension is considered the most important risk factor for white matter damage,” the study authors explain.

This is therefore not the first study to demonstrate the benefits of tea consumption on the brain. A Taiwanese study published in 2024 concluded that “consumption of more or less 3 cups or tea per day has a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease.” And a review of studies published in 2023 “demonstrated that the consumption of tea (green or black) is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.” Dementia is the 7th leading cause of death worldwide, and Alzheimer’s disease is responsible for approximately two-thirds of cases.