More good news about tea

[Johnka]

Tea consumption decreases the risk of hypertension by nearly 50%!

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...4/14/1534?etoc

The Protective Effect of Habitual Tea Consumption on Hypertension
Yi-Ching Yang, MD, MPH; Feng-Hwa Lu, MD, MS; Jin-Shang Wu, MD; Chih-Hsing Wu, MD; Chih-Jen Chang, MD


Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:1534-1540.

Background Tea has long been believed to possess hypotensive effects in popular Chinese medicine. However, conflicting results have been shown among human trials and animal studies on the relation between tea consumption and blood pressure. Epidemiological evidence about the long-term effect of tea on hypertensive risk is also inconsistent.

Methods We examined the effect of tea drinking, measured in detail for the past decades, on the risk of newly diagnosed hypertension in 1507 subjects (711 men and 796 women), 20 years or older, who did not have a hypertensive history during 1996 in Taiwan.

Results Six hundred subjects (39.8%) were habitual tea drinkers, defined by tea consumption of 120 mL/d or more for at least 1 year. Compared with nonhabitual tea drinkers, the risk of developing hypertension decreased by 46% for those who drank 120 to 599 mL/d and was further reduced by 65% for those who drank 600 mL/d or more after carefully adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status, family history of hypertension, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, lifestyle factors (total physical activity, high sodium intake, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and coffee drinking), and dietary factors (vegetable, fruit, unrefined grain, fish, milk, visible-fat food, and deep fried food intake). However, tea consumption for more than 1 year was not associated with a further reduction of hypertension risk.

Conclusion Habitual moderate strength green or oolong tea consumption, 120 mL/d or more for 1 year, significantly reduces the risk of developing hypertension in the Chinese population.

[CtA318]

WHat is hypertension?

[Johnka]

High blood pressure.

[Q.]

John,

What's your take on the generalizability of this to our population? I haven't converted the amounts myself... have you? How much tea is that?

[Q.]

Originally posted by CtA318:
WHat is hypertension?

Don't forget this!

[CtA318]

I wont

[BjsAust]

120 mL/d is about half a cup of tea per day. They tested up to 600 ml which is just over 2 cups (or about 2 mugs I guess).

I generally have a cup of green tea with breakfast, and maybe another cup of decaffienated green tea at night (I know the decaf stuff has a lot of the good stuff removed, but I'm trying to cut down caffiene after mid afternoon in order to sleep better).

[Happy]

www.peets.com A
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[Johnka]

I've been drinking iced green tea, which really hits the spot here in the sunny climes of Texas. I found a place that makes a really nice jasmine green tea.

[Q.]

I assume that they weren't talking about DECAF tea. I drink decaf green tea frequently - in fact, I need to go pour some more right now - but I wonder if that makes any difference. You'd think that, for the purposes of lowering BP, decaf would be better!

[LeafofDeath]

Supposedly, Green Tea that is decaffeinated using the natural process of effervescence retains ~95% of the anti-oxidants.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it seems like you get all the good stuff and can avoid the caffeine.

On the otherhand, our understanding of antioxidants and/or WHY green tea has such potent effects seems to be limited. To my knowledge, there have been no major studies done using decaffeinated Green Tea. Also, there have been studies with Black Tea, which shows similar positive effects, but supposedly a very large percentage of the antioxidants are destroyed in the fermentation process that creates Black Tea.

So in conclusion, I'm going to stick with caffeinated Green Tea for now, even though I normally try to avoid Caffeine altogether.