Large study links tea habits with vascular health, while experts urge caution about cause and effect.
SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
A familiar cup of tea is attracting fresh attention after researchers linked regular consumption with lower rates of vascular disease. But the findings also suggest that drinking temperature deserves a closer look.
Published October 21 in the Journal of Internal Medicine, the study followed 485,934 adults in China for an average of about nine years. Habitual tea drinkers had roughly an 11% lower relative risk of vascular disease compared with nonhabitual drinkers.
Moderate-strength tea showed favorable associations. Tea described as “burning hot,” however, was associated with higher vascular disease risk. The research did not establish a specific safe temperature or prove that heat caused the difference.
The lowest estimated risk appeared around six to eight cups daily among weekly tea drinkers. That figure should not become a drinking target, experts cautioned.
“But this doesn’t prove that a daily cuppa protects your heart,” Dell Stanford, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said in comments published by the Science Media Centre.
Stanford noted that tea intake was measured only once and cup sizes were not standardized. Differences in other dietary and lifestyle habits could help explain the results. Researchers also found the lowest risk among participants who combined tea drinking with physical activity and not smoking.
Dr. Charalampos Rallis of Queen Mary University of London cautioned that the temperature findings were exploratory and that the analysis did not fully account for diet and income.
For readers, the study offers an interesting conversation about an everyday beverage. It does not establish that adding more cups will prevent a heart attack, or that tea can substitute for broader heart-health habits.