Study: Tea Linked to 11% Lower Vascular Risk — SkimNews
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- Habitual tea consumption was associated with an 11% lower risk of combined vascular disease in a Journal of Internal Medicine study of 485,934 adults in China followed for a median of 9.05 years, with 14,863 cases recorded across cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, pulmonary heart and peripheral artery disease.
- Six to eight cups a day produced the lowest estimated risk among people who drank tea at least weekly — a pattern the researchers said does not necessarily mean that amount directly prevents disease.
- Black tea showed more consistent associations with reduced vascular risk than green tea, though both varieties come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, and differ mainly in oxidation; the study did not establish that polyphenol content explains the gap.
- Moderate-strength tea carried the lowest associated risk, with stronger brews not linked to greater benefit — one of several variables, alongside amount, variety and temperature, that appeared to matter.
- "Burning hot" tea was associated with increased vascular risk even as regular tea drinking was linked to lower risk, and the researchers identified neither a specific temperature at which tea becomes harmful nor the biological mechanism behind the finding.
- Joint lifestyle analyses found that habitual tea consumption combined with non-current smoking and high physical activity was associated with the lowest vascular risk, a pattern the authors said should be read as part of an overall lifestyle rather than a single beverage in isolation.
Why it matters: For tea drinkers chasing the reported 11% risk reduction, the study specifies roughly six to eight cups of moderately strong tea — and flags burning-hot servings as the counterweight. The catch is that the 9.05-year follow-up of 485,934 adults was observational, so the association does not establish that tea itself lowered disease risk.
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