Study shows that drinking tea (especially green tea) is very good for you

A Chinese study¹ has found that drinking tea regularly may lead to a healthier and longer life.

Drinking tea more than three times a week reduces heart disease and stroke by 20 percent, and also reduced chances of dying from heart disease or stroke by 22 percent. Odds of dying from any cause were lower by 15 percent.

The type of tea may make a difference. Drinking green tea showed a 25 percent lower risk of heart disease and stroke, fatal heart disease and stroke, and all-cause death.

The Longer You Drink Tea, the Bigger the Benefit

The benefit of drinking tea is cummulative over time. Cardiovascular disease was 40% lower, fatal heart disease and stroke was 6% lower, and risk of all-cause death was 29% lower among the study participants who had been tea drinkers for 8 years or longer.

Why does green tea work?

Green tea contains compounds including flavonoids, and polyphenols, which have known health benefits:

“Tea is a rich source of powerful antioxidants, which have known benefits for heart and vascular health, including protecting the arteries from inflammation and stress, and lowering blood pressure. Green tea in particular is more potent because it is less processed than black tea, so more of these beneficial substances are available in the finished product.” Sarah Samaan, MD ²

“The known benefits associated with these polyphenols and flavonoids are anti-inflammatory. This leads to improvement of the blood vessel function with more dilation and less constriction, improvement in cardiac cell function, an increase in our HDL [good cholesterol], improvement in blood pressure, reduction in various markers of inflammation [such as C-reactive protein and interleukin–6], and making one of our clotting factors — platelets — less sticky.” Guy Mintz, MD ³

Does Black Tea not have the same effect?

Some reasons why black tea may not have shown the same levels of effectiveness include:

1. black tea is fermented, which reduces the effectiveness of polyphenols
2. black tea is often served with milk, which negatively affects vascular function.
3. the research for this study was conducted in China. About half of the tea drinkers in the study mostly drank green tea, and less than 10% mostly drank black tea.

via EverydayHealth.com⁴