Drinking coffee or tea in moderation reduces the risk of developing heart disease, according to a new study.Researchers in The Netherlands found that drinking more than six cups of tea per day was associated with a 36 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those who drank less than one cup of tea per day. Drinking three to six cups of tea per day was associated with a 45 percent reduced risk of death from heart disease, compared to consumption of less than one cup per day.
And for coffee, the researchers found that drinkers with a modest intake, two to four cups per day, had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those drinking less than two cups or more than four cups.Although not considered significant, moderate coffee consumption slightly reduced the risk of heart disease death and deaths from all causes.Researchers also found that neither coffee nor tea consumption affected stroke risk.
“While previous studies have shown that coffee and tea seem to reduce the risk of heart disease, evidence on stroke risk and the risk of death from heart disease was not conclusive. Our results found the benefits of drinking coffee and tea occur without increasing risk of stroke or death from all causes,” said Yvonne T. van der Schouw, study senior author and professor of chronic disease epidemiology, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Van der Schouw and colleagues used a questionnaire to evaluate coffee and tea consumption among 37,514 participants. They followed the participants for 13 years for occurrences of cardiovascular disease and death.
The risk of heart disease was cut by 20 percent among those who drank two to four cups of coffee.
ReplyDeleteThe study did not include people already suffering from heart disease, so its results cannot be generalized to such high-risk populations.