Associated Press, 9 July 1999

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LONDON - Drinking at least one cup of tea a day could cut the risk of
heart attack by 44 percent, according to new research presented Thursday.

Researchers say the beneficial results probably are due to the powerful
amounts of natural substances in tea known as flavonoids, vitaminlike
nutrients that make blood cells less prone to clotting.

Flavonoids also are one of the most powerful antioxidants, or substances
that offset the damaging effects of oxygen in the body. Scientists have
recently become excited about the potential benefits of flavonoids, which
also are found in fruits and vegetables and are famously connected to the
heart-healthy effect of red wine.

Although earlier studies have suggested that tea-drinking could be good for
the heart, the latest findings are the most comprehensive and indicate the
most dramatic effect.

"This is, in my view, quite an astonishing outcome," said Dr. Catherine
Rice-Evans, an antioxidant researcher at King's College, London, who was
not connected with the study. "These are very exciting results."

The study, by Dr. Michael Gaziano, a heart specialist at the Harvard
Medical School-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, was
presented at a Royal Society of Medicine conference in London.

It examined 340 men and women who had suffered heart attacks and matched
them by age, sex and neighborhood with people who had never had heart
attacks. It then investigated their coffee- and tea-drinking habits over
the course of a year.

The study involved regular tea from black tea leaves, as opposed to green
or herbal teas. Scientists say black tea contains more powerful flavonoids
than green tea, while herbal teas are not known to contain any flavonoids.

Other studies have shown that adding milk, sugar or lemon to the tea does
not diminish the effect of the flavonoids. There also is no difference
between drinking it hot or cold, or preparing it with loose tea leaves, tea
bags of granulated crystals, according to Dr. Paul Quinlan, a biochemist
who heads the Brook Bond tea company's health research unit.

The study was adjusted for factors that could have skewed the results, such
as smoking, exercise, alcohol intake and family history of heart trouble.

Few of the study subjects drank one beverage exclusively, so they were
categorized by their strong preferences. Dr. Gaziano found that those who
drank one or more cups of tea a day had a 44 percent lower risk of heart
attack, compared with those who did not drink tea. The study did not
compare the benefits of one cup vs. two, three or four.

However, the question of how much tea to drink, and how strong it needs to
be brewed to get the greatest heart benefits, is still open to debate.

The study, which was paid for by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute, also found that coffee had no effect on heart attacks,
regardless of whether it was decaffeinated.