Drinking tea could affect your heart disease risk, experts suggest
Anyone who anticipates their morning brew may be pleased to know how the strike-of-dawn habit could positively impact their health.
We Brits love a cup of tea, with the average person consuming around two to three cups of the caffeinated stuff per day, as per research collected by the UK Tea & Infusions Association.
But have you ever stopped to think about how your ritualistic hot beverage could be reacting with your body?
Experts recently published an eye-opening study in the Journal of International Medicine, claiming regular black tea drinkers may have a lower risk of developing several vascular diseases than those who stay away from the good stuff.
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The positive conclusion was drawn after leads of the study pooled health data collected from 485,934 Chinese adults.
Participants were followed on average for around 9.05 years.
During the period, researchers recorded 14,863 cases involving several types of vascular disease.
This included cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, pulmonary heart disease and peripheral artery disease, as reported by ScienceDaily.
Experts suggested in the paper that those who regularly consumed black tea had an 11 percent lower chance of developing one of these diseases.
However, the relationship appeared to vary with the amount consumed.
Among participants who drank tea at least weekly, the lowest estimated risk occurred at around six to eight cups per day.
In terms of tea strength, those who drank moderate-strength tea were more likely to have a low associated vascular disease risk, suggesting that stronger isn’t always better.
Surprisingly, the researchers found that anyone who drank ‘burning hot’ tea was actually linked to an increased risk.
The findings back up a study published in September, which saw UK researchers suggesting that drinks at hot temperatures can increase the risk of cancer of the food pipe or gullet, known as oesophageal cancer.
In the study, people who had their drinks ‘very hot’ (65 degrees Celsius or above) had around a three-times higher risk of the cancer than ‘warm’ tea or coffee drinkers.
It was reported that one or two in every 10 oesophageal cancers could be avoided if people stopped drinking very hot beverages.
Smoking, another risk factor for oesophageal cancer, was also broached in the black tea study.
Researchers examined how tea consumption related to other lifestyle factors, including smoking and physical activity.
They found that those who regularly drank tea, were not current smokers, and maintained high levels of physical activity had the lowest vascular disease risk.
“Joint analyses showed that tea consumption, smoking status and physical were collectively associated with vascular risk, with the favourable combination of habitual tea consumption, non-current smoking and high physical activity associated with the lowest risk,” the authors said.
While more research is needed to properly determine whether tea consumption directly influences disease risk, the study is evidence that drinking hot beverages can benefit health in some way.
Put the kettle on, will you?
Ella Scott
