Study results strengthen evidence that coffee and tea protect against coronary heart disease
FRIDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Moderate coffee drinkers and moderate to heavy tea drinkers appear to experience less risk of heart disease and, in the case of tea drinkers, lower heart disease-related mortality, according to research published online June 18 in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.
J. Margot de Koning Gans, of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, and colleagues collected data on coffee and tea consumption in 37,514 individuals and followed them for 13 years to examine possible associations between consumption of the two beverages and morbidity and mortality from stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD), as well as all-cause mortality.
The researchers found that people with a moderate coffee consumption habit -- drinking two to four cups daily -- had a 20 percent lower risk of CHD than those who drank lower or greater amounts. In addition, tea had an inverse relationship with CHD; people who drank more than six cups of tea a day had a 36 percent lower risk of heart disease than those who drank less than one cup. Those who drank three to six cups of tea per day had a 45 percent lower risk of death from heart disease than those who drank less than one cup. No association was found between either beverage and stroke.
"High tea consumption is associated with a reduced risk of CHD mortality. Our results suggest a slight risk reduction for CHD mortality with moderate coffee consumption and strengthen the evidence on the lower risk of CHD with coffee and tea consumption," the authors write.
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