Drinking tea regularly linked to reduced cardiovascular disease risk

Drinking tea regularly linked to reduced cardiovascular disease risk By Mary Villareal for Super Foods

According to a prospective cohort study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, drinking tea three or more times a week helps improve cardiovascular health and reduces the risk of death from all causes.

Chinese researchers studied over 100,000 healthy individuals with no history of heart attack, stroke or cancer. They split them into two groups: those who drank tea and those who didn’t. After follow-ups of an average of 7 years, the researchers concluded that habitual tea drinkers are less likely to develop heart diseases by 20 percent. They are also less likely to die from heart disease and stroke by 22 percent, and of other causes by 15 percent.

Following their initial study, the researchers assessed over 14,000 individuals who kept their tea-drinking habits and found that they enjoyed more benefits, including lowered risk for fatal heart attack, disease, and stroke by 56 percent.

Black or Green Tea? 

Healthline, in a comprehensive article, took note of the benefits of tea. While green and black tea both contain caffeine, green tea is known to contain less caffeine than black tea but has more antioxidants, which is why green and black tea can have different effects on the body.

Green tea is observed to have a stronger effect than black tea when it comes to HDL-C concentrations and could account for improved metabolism. On the other hand, caffeine helps stimulate the nervous system by blocking adenosine, an inhibitory neurotransmitter. It also releases dopamine and serotonin, which are known to be mood-enhancers. Thus, caffeine in tea can boost alertness, mood, and short-term memory recall.

Tea also contains L-theanine, which releases gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) that brings out a relaxed but alert state in humans. L-theanine is also said to balance the effects of caffeine, so combining both can be synergistic as studies showed that people who ingested L-theanine and caffeine have better attention than either when used alone.

While green tea is said to have a slightly more substantial amount of L-theanine than black tea, both are full of polyphenols and catechins. These antioxidant compounds are known for their anti-inflammatory properties.

Other experts believe that the health benefits seen in these habitual drinkers can be attributed to polyphenols or the organic chemical that are found in black and green tea. Polyphenols help increase good cholesterol and reduces inflammation for heart health. However, polyphenols are not retained in the body long, which is why ongoing tea consumption is important to see its benefits.

A separate report from Healthline quoted Dr. Satjit Bhusri, a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. He said, “Polyphenols are derived from plants, especially flowering plants. The ‘phenol’ part of polyphenols is where the plants and flowers derive their scent or aroma.”

This backs up a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in 2018. A group of researchers monitored over 80,000 people from Tangshan, China, for over six years. The study showed that regular tea drinkers had a slower age-related decrease in HDL levels (good cholesterol). This decline was eventually linked to an 8 percent decrease in cardiovascular risk among the individuals in the study. (Related: Green tea lowers cholesterol.)

The link between greater tea consumption and slower HDL decreases seems to be most pronounced in men and people age over 60, who typically had higher heart disease risk factors. In conclusion, tea consumption can be associated with the decrease in blood HDL?C concentrations during the period of the study.

Read more articles from Heart.news, which has more information regarding the benefits of drinking tea.

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