Drinking tea can prevent high blood pressure! Lu Xiangfeng and others from Fuwai Hospital studied

A cohort study with a follow-up of nearly 6 years published by Lu Xiangfeng et al. from the Fuwai Hospital suggested that drinking tea may prevent hypertension.

The study found that compared with non-tea drinkers, habitual tea drinkers (drinking tea ≥3 times a week for at least six months) had a 17% and 14% lower risk of elevated blood pressure and hypertension, respectively.

In addition to the frequency of tea drinking, it was further found that the more tea you drink per month, the lower your risk of high blood pressure. For people who drink more than 2 liang of tea per month, the risk of high blood pressure did not decrease further.

Analyses stratified by age, baseline body mass index, and blood pressure level showed that the effects of tea drinking habit on blood pressure progression and incident hypertension were similar.

The study analyzed 38,913 residents who participated in the China Metabolic Syndrome Community Intervention and China Family Health Study (CIMIC), and found that 25.6% of them were habitual tea drinkers. Habitual tea drinkers were mostly men, smokers, drinkers, and well-educated people. The median follow-up was 5.9 years.

During a median follow-up of 5.9 years, 17,657 people developed elevated blood pressure and 5,935 developed hypertension.

The researchers pointed out that although many previous reports have shown that tea is significantly negatively correlated with blood pressure or hypertension, there is little evidence from prospective cohort studies, and the few prospective studies also have limitations such as the subjectivity of blood pressure measurement and the amount of tea consumed. In contrast, this study demonstrated the health benefits of drinking tea on blood pressure progression and hypertension incidence through standardized blood pressure clinical measurements.

Source: China Circulation Magazine