Three cups of black tea a day may considerably reduce blood pressure, a new study has revealed.
Scientists at The University of Western Australia and Unilever based their findings on drinking black tea and the effect of drinking tea with milk is not known.
“There is already mounting evidence that tea is good for your heart health, but this is an important discovery because it demonstrates a link between tea and a major risk factor for heart disease,” the Daily Mail quoted lead author Research Professor Jonathan Hodgson as saying.
Blood pressure measurement comprises two numbers. The first is the systolic and measures blood pressure when the heart beats, or contracts to push blood through the body. The second number is the diastolic and measures the amount of pressure in between beats, when the heart is at rest.
In the study, 95 Australian participants aged between 35 and 75 were asked to drink either three cups of black tea or a placebo with the same flavour and caffeine content, but not derived from tea.
The researchers recorded their readings after six months and found that as compared to the placebo group, participants who drank black tea had a lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure of between 2 and 3 mmHg (millimetres of mercury).
The authors consider that a 2 to 3mmHg drop in blood pressure across the board would lead to a 10 per cent drop in the number of people with hypertension and heart disease.
“A large proportion of the general population has blood pressure within the range included in this trial, making results of the trial applicable to individuals at increased risk of hypertension,” Dr Hodgson said.
The study has been published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
