|
Drinking tea cuts blood pressure
Saturday January 28, 2012 10:02:01 PM,
IANS
|
|
London: Drinking up to
eight cups of tea a day lowers blood pressure and could prevent
heart disease, Australian scientists have found.
Researchers at the University of Western Australia gave black leaf
tea, such as Earl Grey or English Breakfast to volunteers with
normal to high blood pressure.
They were given drinks containing 429 milligrams of the plant
chemical polyphenols -- or the equivalent of eight and a half cups
of tea a day.
A second group were given a tea-flavoured placebo.
After six months, the blood pressure of the tea-drinking group had
fallen by between two and three mmHg, the measurement of pressure
used in medicine.
A blood pressure fluctuating with the heartbeat between 112 and 63
mmHg is considered healthy, while a reading fluctuating between
140 and 90 is deemed high.
If the experiment was emulated by the general population, the
number of people with high blood pressure would be cut by 10
percent and the risk of heart disease would fall by between seven
and 10 percent.
"Our study has demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge
that long-term regular consumption of black tea can result in
significantly lower blood pressures in individuals with normal to
high-normal range blood pressures," the team, led by Jonathan
Hodgson, wrote in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Adding milk to tea also does not affect the body's ability to
absorb polyphenols, earlier studies have suggested.
Green tea is believed to have many health benefits as it is high
in antioxidants. It is said to help in weight loss, prevent
glaucoma and reduce risk of cancer.
|
|
|
|
Home |
Top of the Page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comments
|
Quick links