TUESDAY, Sept. 12 (HealthDay News) -- For those hoping to live a long, healthy life, a cup of
green tea may hit the spot, a large new study shows.
Adults who
drank at least five cups of the brew daily had a lower
risk of cardiovascular death and death from all other
causes, except
cancer, than those who drank less than one cup a day, according to a research team from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.
They published their findings in the Sept. 13 Journal of the American Medical Association.
While many laboratory and animal studies have suggested that green tea protects against illness, its effect in humans has been less clear.
Beginning in 1994, his team tracked the health of adults aged 40 to 79 living in northeastern Japan, where green tea is a popular beverage. The participants had no history of heart disease, stroke or cancer when they started the study.
The researchers tracked death from all causes for 11 years and also tracked deaths linked to specific causes for a 7-year period.
More than 4,000 of the participants died over the total 11 years of follow-up, the research team reported. During the 7 years of the study that focused on specific causes, 892 people died from cardiovascular disease and 1,134 from cancer.
Comparing death rates and green tea consumption, Kuriyama's team found that individuals who drank five or more cups per day had a risk of death from all causes that was 16 percent lower than people drinking less than one cup per day.
Deaths from cardiovascular disease were 26 percent lower for tea drinkers vs. those who avoided the beverage.
These effects were even stronger among women. Women who drank five or more cups of green tea per day had a 31 percent lower risk of death from heart disease and stroke death compared to women who drank less than a cup a day.
Green tea appeared to have no effect on cancer risk, however. The researchers also saw only a weak or negligible effect on death rates for people who drank black or oolong teas.