Will drinking tea help you live longer?
A study published in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Preventive Cardiology suggests that people who drink tea three or more times a week may live longer and suffer a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than their non-tea drinking counterparts.
Researchers in China tracked self-reported tea consumption as part of the China-PAR project, monitoring the cardiovascular health of more than 100,000 Chinese adults with no prior history of heart attack, stroke, or cancer.
Overall, they found that, on average, consistent tea drinkers were diagnosed with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease 1.41 years later and live 1.26 years longer than those who drink tea rarely or not at all. Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or atherosclerosis, is caused by high cholesterol levels, causing plaque to form and arteries to harden and become blocked.
Among these, a subset of 14,081 participants surveyed twice over an average of eight years found a more definitive correlation between tea drinking and cardiovascular health. Individuals who habitually drank tea in both surveys had a 56% lower risk of fatal heart disease and stroke and a 29% decreased risk of all-cause death, per the report.
Dongfeng Gu, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and co-author of the study, said in a statement that tea’s “protective effects” affected consistent habitual tea drinkers the most.
Full article on USA Today
