A closer look at Matcha tea powder's antidepressant-like effects (It auto adjusts)

Medical Xpress / Kumamoto University / Nutrients ^ | March 16, 2023 | Yuki Kurauchi et al

[ConservativeMind]

Matcha can boost mood and mental performance in humans and mice alike. Researchers evaluated the anti-depressive effects of Matcha tea powder in mice. The powder activates dopaminergic neural circuits and improves depression in certain mice, depending on the animal's prior mental state.

Although the onset of depression varies among individuals, it is believed that the disease commonly stems from a reduction in dopamine in the brain. Dopamine plays an important role in elevating one's mood.

And while various antidepressants have been developed to counter the effect of low dopamine, these have many side effects.

Consumption has shown to improve anxiety-like behavior in mice by activating dopamine function via dopamine D1 receptor signaling.

The team used mice subjected to social isolation stress for their experiments. Orally administering a Matcha tea suspension, however, appeared to reduce levels of depression in the stress-susceptible mice.

An immunohistochemical analysis of the mice brains revealed activation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the stress-susceptible mice after they had consumed the Matcha tea suspension. These regions form an important part of the dopaminergic circuit and are crucial for controlling dopamine levels in the brain.

Their activation—indicated by an increase in the number of cells expression c-Fos, an important indicator of neural activity—would typically boost dopamine levels, elevating one's mood. Stress-susceptible mice with a shorter immobility time also had more c-Fos-positive cells in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of their brains (which initiates dopaminergic activity), as well as in the PFC and NAc, indicating higher neural activity and dopamine production. In contrast, none of these effects were seen in stress-tolerant mice.

"These results suggest that Matcha tea powder exerts an antidepressant-like effect by activating the dopaminergic system of the brain, and this is influenced by the mental state of the individual."

[ConservativeMind]

Matcha’s actions on anxiety and depression appears to only “work,” if it’s needed.

[ConservativeMind]

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