Tea linked to reduced cancer, heart disease and dementia risk, study finds

Drinking tea is linked to reduced cancer, heart disease and dementia risk, an expert panel has found.

According to a symposium led by the US Tea Council, the hot beverage owes its health benefits largely to flavonoids, a compound found in both black and herbal teas.

Naturally occurring antioxidants present in flavonoids provide bioactive compounds that help neutralise free radicals which may damage elements in the body, such as genetic material and lipids, and contribute to chronic disease.

“There is a growing body of research from around the world demonstrating that drinking tea can enhance human health in many ways,” said Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor emeritus in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in the US.

“True teas – which include black, green, white, oolong, and dark – can contribute significantly to the promotion of public health,” he said, speaking at the sixth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health.

Dr Blumberg added: “Evidence presented at this symposium reveals results – ranging from suggestive to compelling – about the benefits of tea on cancer, cardiometabolic disease, cognitive performance, and immune function.”

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The symposium included a comprehensive review of the published data on drinking tea.

According to Tufts University nutritional immunologist Dr Dayong Wu, “tea may help support your immune system and increase your body’s resistance to illnesses”.

He added: “In the event you do become sick, tea can help your body respond to illness in a more efficient way by ridding itself of the infection and may also alleviate its severity.”

According to Dr Wu, flavonoids also known as catechins have been shown to help fight against a variety of pathogens, both by boosting the immune system response and by decreasing the potency of the infection.

The symposium’s findings follow a 2021 study that also found significant health benefits in tea. The research found that drinking coffee or tea may be linked with a lower risk of stroke and dementia.

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In the research by Yuan Zhang and colleagues from Tianjin Medical University in China, 365,000 people aged between 50 and 74 were followed for more than a decade. At the start the participants, who were involved in the UK Biobank study, self-reported how much coffee and tea they drank. Over the research period, 5,079 of them developed dementia and 10,053 went on to have at least one stroke.

Researchers found that people who drank two to three cups of coffee or three to five cups of tea a day, or a combination of four to six cups of coffee and tea, had the lowest risk of stroke or dementia.

Those who drank two to three cups of coffee and two to three cups of tea daily had a 32 per cent lower risk of stroke. These people had a 28 per cent lower risk of dementia compared with those who did not drink tea or coffee.