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Should you Join the Tea Party? Healthy Benefits of drinking Tea

By Carol Shoenberger
Filed under: Tea         Words in this Post: 410



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Legend has it that tea was discovered by a Chinese emperor nearly 5,000 years ago when the leaves of a nearby bus accidentally blew into his vat of boiling water. Over the centuries, tea’s popularity has spread the world over. In more recent years scientists have uncovered an array of potential health benefits from heart protection to anti-cancer and weight-loss effects. Should you drink a cup- or two or three times a day?

Heart Health: Population studies including a recent one from Japan in the journal of the American Medical Association link tea consumption with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Tea may lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and make it less susceptible to artery-damaging oxidation as well as improve blood vessel functioning, lessen inflammation, and inhibit blood clotting. But not all studies show heart benefits, and a Greek study found that black tea had an adverse stiffening effect on the aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart while both black and green tea boosted a variable indicating increased load on the heart.

Cancer: In lab and animal experiments (but not human studies) tea polyphenols have been shown to inhibit a variety of cancers, including colon, bladder, pancreas, lung, skin and prostate. Several observational studies in women from Europe, China and the U.S have linked tea with reduced risk of ovarian cancer, for example

Body Weight: There’s some evidence that tea may have a weight-loss effect through not all studies find this and any effect would be modest at best. In a small study a few years ago. Oolong and Green tea boosted energy expenditure in healthy women. And in a review by Swiss researchers, most studies found that green tea or green tea extract reduced body weight and body fat. Teapolyphenols may stimulate energy metabolism and boost fat burning but part of the effect may also be due to tea’s caffeine.

Bone Health: Several studies including a recent one from Australia looking at women age 70 to 85, found that long term tea drinkers tend to have greater bone density than non-drinkers. Tea contains fluoride, flavnoids and other compounds that may be good for bones.

The Brain: Lab and animal studies support the role of tea in aiding cognition studies in people. However, are limited in one study in 2006. Older people in Japan who reported drinking as little as four to six cups of green tea a week had a reduced risk of cognitive impairment compared to those who drank less.

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Author: Carol

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