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Drinking Tea May Help Prevent Heart Attacks

Drinking more tea and increasing flavonoid intake may help primary prevention of ischaemic heart disease.

Researchers at the National Institute of Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, and in the Netherlands examined the association of tea and flavonoid intake with incident myocardial infarction was examined in the general Dutch population.

Tea is the major source of flavonoids in Western populations and some evidence, though not all, has suggested that they might protect against cardiovascular disease.

The researchers analysed data from the Rotterdam Study, a population-based study of men and women aged 55 years. Using a validated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire, the researchers assessed the diet at baseline (1990-1993) of 4,807 patients with no history of myocardial infarction who were followed until 31 December 1997.

Analysis of the data included adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, pack-years of cigarette smoking, education level and daily intakes of alcohol, coffee, polyunsaturated fat, saturated fat, fibre, vitamin E and total energy.

During 5.6 years of follow-up, there were 146 first myocardial infarctions, 30 of which were fatal. The relative risk of incident myocardial infarction was nearly half as low in tea drinkers with a daily intake of more than 375 mL than in patients who did not drink tea. This inverse association with tea drinking was stronger for fatal than non-fatal events.

The intake of the dietary flavonoids quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin was significantly associated inversely with fatal myocardial infarction only in upper tertiles of intake.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2002;75(5):880-886. "Inverse association of tea and flavonoid intakes with incident myocardial infarction: the Rotterdam Study"

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