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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.
Source:
Heart
Disease Week of May 12, 2002
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