Green Tea Extract Boosts Alertness and Enhances Memory

New research suggests that people who want to increase their levels of alertness and boost their memory may benefit from taking a supplement containing an extract of green tea (GTE) combined with the amino acid L-theanine. Korean researchers recruited 91 people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) for the 16-week-long study. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 1,680 mg of the GTE-L-theanine supplement (LGNC-07) or placebo. Results showed that participants who received the supplement demonstrated improvements in memory, with “marginal” improvements in recognition and “significant” increases in recall of word reading. The researchers also performed electroencephalograms (EEG) on 24 participants randomly chosen from both groups (12 supplement group, 12 placebo group), with results of this arm of the study showing that use of the supplement led to improvements in mental alertness in specific parts of the brain. The authors concluded: “This study showed that LGNC-07, a combination of GTE and L-theanine improved cognitive function by increasing memory and attention in MCI subjects. As a natural ingredient with a long history of consumption, LGNC-07 should be considered as a potential nutraceutical candidate for enhancing cognitive performance.”