Green tea and coffee could help reduce death risk from heart disease

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Scientists from Chung-Ang University and elsewhere found drinking green tea and coffee may reduce the death risk from heart disease.

Caffeine is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about coffee. But coffee also contains antioxidants and other active substances that may reduce internal inflammation and protect against disease.

Many studies have shown that a variety of teas may boost your immune system, fight off inflammation, and even ward off cancer and heart disease

Previous evidence suggests that drinking coffee may lower the risk of death. But evidence regarding drinking tea in Asians is limited.

In the study, researchers examined the association between drinking coffee and tea and death risk in Asian populations.

They used data from 12 published studies including 248 050 men and 280 454 women from the Asia Cohort Consortium conducted in China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

The team examined the specific association of coffee, green tea, and black tea drinking with death risk in heart disease and cancer.

They found in total, there were 94 744 deaths during the follow-up, which ranged from an average of 6.5 to 22.7 years.

Compared with coffee non-drinkers, men and women who drank at least five cups of coffee per day had a 24% and a 28% lower risk of all-cause death, respectively.

Similarly, we found coffee drinking was linked to death risk in heart disease and cancer among both men and women.

Green tea drinking was linked to a lower risk of mortality from all causes, heart disease, and other causes but not from cancer.

The team also found the association of drinking green tea with heart-disease-specific death was particularly strong for men and women who drank at least five cups per day of green tea compared with non-drinkers.

The association between black tea drinking and mortality was weak, with no clear trends found.

Based on the findings, the team concludes that in Asian populations, coffee drinking is associated with a lower risk of death overall and with lower risks of death from heart disease and cancer.

Green tea drinking is associated with lower risks of death from all causes and heart disease.

The research was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and conducted by Sangah Shin et al.

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