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 LONDON, Jul 09 (AP) -- Drinking at
least one cup of tea a day could cut the risk of heart attack by 44 percent,
according to new research presented yesterday.
The study by Dr. Michael
Gaziano, a heart specialist at the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston, shows that tea contains powerful amounts of
flavonoids -- vitamin-like nutrients that make blood cells less prone to
clots, which can cause heart attacks.
Flavonoids also are one of
the most powerful antioxidants, which offset the damaging effects of oxygen
in the body, such as fatty deposits in the arteries. Scientists have
recently become excited about the potential benefits of flavonoids, which
number about 4,000 and are also found in fruits, vegetables and are famously
connected to the heart-healthy effects of red wine.
While earlier studies have
suggested that tea-drinking could be good for the heart, the latest findings,
presented Thursday at a Royal Society of Medicine conference in London, are
the most comprehensive and indicate the most dramatic effect.
Gaziano found that  people who
drank one or more cups of tea a day slashed their risk of heart attack by 44
percent, compared with those who did not drink tea.
"This is, in my view, quite
an astonishing outcome," said Dr. Catherine Rice-Evans, an antioxidant
researcher at King's College, London, who was not connected with the study.
"These are very exciting results."
But the study did not compare
the benefits of one cup versus two, three or four, and the question of how
much tea to drink, and how strong it should be brewed for the greatest
benefit is still open to debate.
John Folts, a University of
Wisconsin heart specialist who studies the effects of flavonoids on the
heart and was not involved in the study, said he thinks it would take more
than one cup of tea a day. His studies on dogs have indicated that six cups
of tea daily are needed to prevent a blood clot in the coronary artery.
Gaziano's study examined 340
men and women who had suffered heart attacks and matched them by age, sex
and neighborhood with people who had never had a heart attack. It then
investigated their coffee- and tea-drinking habits over the course of a year.
The study involved regular
tea from black tea leaves, as opposed to green or herbal teas. Scientists
say black tea contains more powerful flavonoids than green tea, while herbal
teas are not known to contain any flavonoids.
Other studies have shown that
it doesn't matter if milk, sugar or lemon are added to the tea. There also
is no difference between drinking it hot or cold, or preparing it with loose
tea leaves, tea bags or granulated crystals, said Dr. Paul Quinlan, a
biochemist who heads the Brook Bond tea company's health research unit.
Few of the study subjects
drank one beverage exclusively, so they were categorized by their strong
preferences. The study was adjusted for factors that could have skewed the
results, such as smoking, exercise, alcohol intake and family history of
heart trouble. Total calories consumed, intake of fatty foods and body mass
index -- which compares the girth of people of different heights to determine
obesity -- was about the same across the board.
Scientists have not compared
the flavonoid benefits of tea with those of red wine, made famous by research
showing that the French, with red wine as a staple, have lower rates of
heart disease despite their penchant for high-fat food. However, Quinlan
warned that tea is only part of a regimen for cutting heart attack risk and
should not be seen as a substitute for eating fruits and vegetables, giving
up smoking, cutting fat intake or other heart-healthy habits.
The study, which was paid for
by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, also found that coffee
had no effect on heart attacks, regardless of whether it was decaffeinated.
-- Associated Press (2002)
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