Regular tea drinking linked to lower vascular disease risk

Regular tea drinking was associated with an 11% lower risk of vascular disease in a large study of adults in China, but researchers said the observational findings do not show that tea itself caused the reduction. The study also linked burning-hot tea with higher risk and found more consistent lower-risk associations for black tea than green tea. Researchers analyzed data from 485,934 adults followed for about nine years, during which 14,863 cases of vascular disease were recorded. The conditions included cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, pulmonary heart and peripheral artery disease. The findings were published in the Journal of Internal Medicine. People who drank tea regularly had a lower overall risk than those who did not, with the study reporting an association of about 11%. Moderate-strength tea was also associated with lower risk, while drinking tea described as burning hot was associated with higher risk. These patterns describe associations, not proof that tea preparation changed participants’ health outcomes. The study compared different tea habits, including type, strength, temperature and frequency. Black tea showed more consistent inverse associations with vascular...