Tea consumption associated with lower risk of ischemic heart disease
More and more research points to how caffeine, if consumed in moderation, can be good for the heart.
Just last week, Cardiovascular Business published a story on research that found coffee could reverse chronic inflammation and heart disease. Now, this week, a new study has been published on the beneficial effects of tea.
The research, which included a cohort of more than 487,000 adults in China, is part of the largest prospective study assessing the association between tea consumption and incident ischemic heart disease to date. Findings showed that consuming tea on a daily basis was associated with lower risks of developing the life-threatening heart disease.
The research was led by Liming Li, MD, a professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing. The findings were published in Heart.
“Intriguingly, daily tea consumers were at a lower risk [for ischemic heart disease] incidence than those who drank less than daily, but the increasing amount of tea did not further reduce the risk,” the authors wrote in the study.
The researchers studied data from the China Kadoorie Biobank, which included men and women aged 30 to 79 from 10 areas in China who did not already suffer from cancer, heart disease or stroke. They were enrolled from 2004 to 2008 and were studied until 2013.
“We have carefully controlled for established and potential risk factors for [ischemic heart disease],” the authors wrote. “We measured tea consumption in gram of tea leaves added, which may be a better measure of tea consumption and at least partly reflect the intake amount of active ingredient.”
During the follow up period, there were more than 24,000 cases of incident ischemic heart disease and nearly 4,000 cases of major coronary events, but fewer events for tea drinkers. Additionally, researchers didn’t find any trends in incidents of ischemic heart disease and coronary events in participants who consumed different amounts of tea.
“The present study yields compelling evidence on understanding the role of tea in [CV] health and referring tea as a healthy beverage,” the authors wrote.
Senior Writer
As a Senior Writer for TriMed Media Group, Katherine primarily focuses on producing news stories, Q&As and features for Cardiovascular Business. She reports on several facets of the cardiology industry, including emerging technology, new clinical trials and findings, and quality initiatives among providers. She is based out of TriMed's Chicago office and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has appeared in Modern Healthcare, Crain's Chicago Business and The Detroit News. She joined TriMed in 2016.