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.
The beneficial results probably result from the powerful amounts of natural substances in tea known as flavonoids, vitamin like nutrients that make blood cells less prone to clotting, researchers say.
Flavonoid also is one of the most powerful antioxidants, or substances that offset the damaging effects of oxygen in the body. Scientists recently have become excited about the potential benefits of flavonoid, which also are found in fruits and vegetables and are famously connected to the heart-healthy effect of red wine.
While earlier studies have suggested the 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 during the course of a year.
The study involved regular tea from black tea leaves, as opposed to green or herbal teas. Black tea contains more powerful flavonoid than green tea, while herbal teas are not known to contain any flavonoid, scientist say.
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