The heart health benefits of tea have been reported widely, but now researchers claim that the amount of tea that heart survivors drink may have a lot to do with their survival afterwards.
As reported in the May 7th issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers found that heart attack survivors who reported being heavy tea drinkers had a 44 percent lower death rate in the 3.5 years following their heart attacks than non-tea drinkers. Moderate tea drinkers were found to have a 28 percent lower death rate than non-tea drinkers.
The observational study involved 1,900 individuals, both men and women mainly in their 60s, who were questioned an average of four days after suffering a heart attack and asked to report how much caffeinated tea they typically drank each week. The participants were then separated into three groups: non-drinkers, moderate tea drinkers (fewer than 14 cups per week) and heavy tea drinkers (14 or more cups per week).
"What was surprising was the magnitude of the association," said lead author Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "The heaviest tea drinkers had a significantly lower mortality rate than non tea-drinkers."
Mukamal said the protection stems from antioxidants known as flavonoids, which are plentiful in both black and green tea as well as certain fruits and vegetables. Besides preventing bad or LDL cholesterol from becoming oxidized and helping cause atherosclerosis, he said flavonoids possess an anti-clotting effect and improve the ability of the blood vessels to relax in cardiac patients.
"Among this particular group -- people mainly in their 60s who had suffered heart attacks -- tea consumption was not strongly related to lifestyle," he said, noting that the participants were similar in terms of education, income, exercise habits and smoking and drinking habits whether they drank a lot of tea or no tea at all.
