Washington: A new study has revealed that drinking tea helps in curbing non-cardiovascular mortality by 24%.
Professor Nicolas Danchin said that drinking tea would be a better choice than coffee, although both are important for the way of life people live.
The researchers found that coffee drinkers had a higher CV risk profile than non-drinkers, particularly for smoking. The percentage of current smokers was 17% for non-drinkers compared with 31% in those who drank 1 to 4 cups per day and 57% in those who drank more than 4 cups per day.
Non-coffee drinkers were more physically active, with 45% having a good level of physical activity compared to 41% of the heavy coffee drinkers. Tea had a more marked effect on blood pressure than coffee, with a 4-5 mmHg decrease in SBP and 3 mmHg decrease in DBP in the heavy tea drinkers, compared to non-drinkers, when adjusted for age.
Coffee showed a trend for increasing CV mortality in the heavy compared to non-drinkers but the effect was not significant. Coffee significantly increased non-CV mortality but the increased risk disappeared when the effect was adjusted for smoking.
There was a trend for tea drinking to decrease CV mortality but the effect was not quite significant after adjusting for age, gender and smoking. But tea significantly lowered the risk of non-CV death, with a hazard ratio of 0.76 for tea drinkers compared with no tea at all.
Professor Danchin concluded that tea has antioxidants which might provide survival benefits.