Trending Science: Tea helps you live longer, study finds

Drinking green tea at least three times a week is associated with a longer and healthier life, according to a study published in the ‘European Journal of Preventive Cardiology’, the official journal of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology. It could also help ward off age-related diseases like heart disease and stroke.

Disease-fighting benefits

“Habitual tea consumption is associated with lower risks of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death,” first author Dr Xinyan Wang of the Chinese Academy of Medical Science in Beijing told ‘BBC Science Focus Magazine’. “The favourable health effects are the most robust for green tea and for long-term habitual tea drinkers.”

Over a 7-year period, researchers examined 100 902 people in China with no history of heart attack, stroke or cancer. They gathered data through standardised questionnaires and medical tests. The participants were divided into two groups: habitual drinkers who drank tea three or more times a week, and those who drank it less regularly (non-habitual).

Certain compounds in tea leaves, namely polyphenols, are known to reduce inflammation and act as antioxidants in the body. Black tea goes through a fermenting procedure before reaching the cup that can reduce healthy polyphenols.

It’s teatime

Findings suggest that people who drink tea frequently have major health advantages over those who drink less or not at all. Habitual tea drinkers were 20 % less likely to develop incident heart disease and stroke, 22 % less likely to die from a heart attack or stroke, and 15 % less likely to die of any cause compared to non-habitual or non-tea drinkers. The health benefits associated with tea were more evident for drinkers of green rather than black tea, and for those who had been drinking tea regularly over a longer period of time.

The researchers say that regular tea drinking promotes longevity and prevents disease. The study estimates that a 50-year-old tea drinker who sips regularly is more likely to develop heart disease or suffer a stroke nearly 1.5 years later and live 1.26 years longer than someone who rarely drinks tea.

The advantages were also more apparent among men. “We found that the protective effects of habitual tea consumption were very pronounced and robust across different outcomes for men, but only modest for women,” study author Dr Dongfeng Gu from China’s National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, told ‘CNN’. “One reason might be that the proportion of habitual tea consumers among men was approximately two and a half [times] as high as that among women.”

Tea-drinking habits differ around the world, and the results might not apply to the Western world where black tea is more popular and usually taken with milk or sugar. “Tea consumption is part of a cultural heritage, and its health effects might be confounded by other eating and drinking patterns, for example, consumption of other flavonoid-rich food or beverages like coffee,” says Dr Gu.