Green Tea Extract Boosts Exercise Endurance 8-24%, Utilizing Fat as Energy Source in this animal study

A new study tested the effect of regularly taking Green Tea Extract (GTE) and found that over 10 weeks, endurance exercise performance was boosted up to 24% in laboratory animals who had a 0.5% concentration of GTE added to their chow; this is about 4 cups of tea in a 165 lb person. It wasn’t the caffeine according to the researchers because the caffeine was greatly reduced in their GTE. The results "indicate that GTE is beneficial for improving endurance capacity and support the hypothesis that the stimulation of fatty acid utilization is a promising strategy for improving endurance capacity," according to the study. The report is Adapted from materials provided by American Physiology Society.

Red Wine Polyphenols help prevent brain damage caused by a stroke in this animal study

Male rats were given a Red Wine Polyphenol mixture at 30 mg per kg in their drinking water daily for one week. A second group drank regular water. A stroke was triggered in the brain of the animals and then blood flow was resumed matching the progression of a stroke in humans. Twenty-four hours later 29% of the supplemented animals had no brain lesion just some localized swelling and the other 71% had a much smaller amount of damage in their brain than non-supplemented animals. The study is published in the March 1st, 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.