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posted by martyb on Sunday January 12 2020, @04:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc? dept.

Drinking tea at least three times a week is linked with a longer and healthier life, according to a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

"Habitual tea consumption is associated with lower risks of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death," said first author Dr. Xinyan Wang, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. "The favourable health effects are the most robust for green tea and for long-term habitual tea drinkers."

The analysis included 100,902 participants of the China-PAR project with no history of heart attack, stroke, or cancer. Participants were classified into two groups: habitual tea drinkers (three or more times a week) and never or non-habitual tea drinkers (less than three times a week) and followed-up for a median of 7.3 years.

Habitual tea consumption was associated with more healthy years of life and longer life expectancy.

For example, the analyses estimated that 50-year-old habitual tea drinkers would develop coronary heart disease and stroke 1.41 years later and live 1.26 years longer than those who never or seldom drank tea.

Compared with never or non-habitual tea drinkers, habitual tea consumers had a 20% lower risk of incident heart disease and stroke, 22% lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke, and 15% decreased risk of all-cause death.

The potential influence of changes in tea drinking behaviour were analysed in a subset of 14,081 participants with assessments at two time points. The average duration between the two surveys was 8.2 years, and the median follow-up after the second survey was 5.3 years.

Habitual tea drinkers who maintained their habit in both surveys had a 39% lower risk of incident heart disease and stroke, 56% lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke, and 29% decreased risk of all-cause death compared to consistent never or non-habitual tea drinkers.

Senior author Dr. Dongfeng Gu, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "The protective effects of tea were most pronounced among the consistent habitual tea drinking group. Mechanism studies have suggested that the main bioactive compounds in tea, namely polyphenols, are not stored in the body long-term. Thus, frequent tea intake over an extended period may be necessary for the cardioprotective effect."

In a subanalysis by type of tea, drinking green tea was linked with approximately 25% lower risks for incident heart disease and stroke, fatal heart disease and stroke, and all-cause death. However, no significant associations were observed for black tea.

Journal Reference:
Xinyan Wang, Fangchao Liu, Jianxin Li, Xueli Yang, Jichun Chen, Jie Cao, Xigui Wu, Xiangfeng Lu, Jianfeng Huang, Ying Li, Liancheng Zhao, Chong Shen, Dongsheng Hu, Ling Yu, Xiaoqing Liu, Xianping Wu, Shouling Wu, Dongfeng Gu. Tea consumption and the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: The China-PAR project. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2020; 204748731989468 DOI: 10.1177/2047487319894685


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by NickM on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:25PM (1 child)

    by NickM (2867) on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:25PM (#942545) Journal
    They are quite honest about the applicability of their findings:

    In addition, 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 foods or beverages like coffee. Thus, our results from the current study population might be generalizable to the general Chinese adults or other East Asia populations with similar dietary pattern and tea drinking habits but not for the West.

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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @10:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @10:14PM (#942563)

    That is racist and builds on the belief that people are not equal. If you believe that this study doesn't apply to Westerners, you might as well admit that negroes are more likely to commit crimes.