Time for tea - health matters - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, Jan, 2002

It seems that we just keep hearing more good news about tea. Add this to the list: Drinking black tea may lower the risk of heart disease because it prevents blood from dumping and forming clots.

A study was conducted in Australia by Dr. Jonathan Hodgson and colleagues of the University of Western Australia. Twenty-two healthy, non-smoking adults drank five cups of hot water a day for four weeks. Then the participants drank five cups of black tea daily for four weeks. The effects from the two time periods were compared against each other. The researchers found that while drinking the tea the participants had lower levels of P-selectin, a blood protein associated with coagulation. These results suggest that drinking black tea may reduce the risk of heart disease.