Drinking This Beverage Regularly May Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease by 11%, New Study Finds

• Drinking tea regularly may help protect your heart, a new study finds.
• The greatest benefit was seen in people who drank 6 to 8 cups a day.
• The lifestyle trifecta of tea-drinking, high physical activity, and avoiding smoking was linked to the greatest reduction of heart disease.

A growing body of research links coffee to all kinds of health benefits—it may protect your heart, lower liver cancer risk, and even lengthen your life. But where does that leave the folks who prefer drinking tea?

The findings of a recent study present good news: Tea also has a seat at the health-boosting beverage table.

Meet the Experts: Christopher Davis, M.D., chief cardiologist at Humann; Michelle Routhenstein, M.S., R.D., preventive cardiology dietitian atEntirelyNourished.com; Arash Bereliani, M.D., board-certified cardiologist and medical director of the Beverly Hills Institute for Cardiology and Preventive Medicine.

The findings, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, actually aren’t the first of their kind—regularly drinking tea has its own studied health benefits, even if they may not be as talked-about as those of coffee. This research simply adds to the drink’s credibility and lets you breathe a little easier if your morning beverage of choice leans the tea route. Below, cardiologists and a dietitian weigh in on the findings and share how they recommend taking your cup.

What did the study find?

Researchers observed a large group of nearly 486,000 adults in China and asked them about their tea-drinking habits. After nine years, they looked into participants’ heart health to see how the tea may have affected it.

They discovered that people who drank tea regularly had about an 11% lower risk of developing vascular disease—including heart disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease—than people who didn’t. Black tea showed a more consistent benefit than green tea, and while you may think the stronger the tea, the stronger the results, that wasn’t the case here: Moderate-strength tea was shown to have the greatest effect. And more tea wasn’t necessarily better, either. Weekly drinkers who sipped six to eight cups per day had the lowest risk.

Temperature appeared to matter, too. “One finding stood out to me: People who drank their tea very hot actually had a higher risk,” says Christopher Davis, M.D., chief cardiologist at Humann. According to the study, those who preferred their tea “burning hot” had a 16% higher risk of vascular disease.

And, like many things in the nutrition world, it’s not only about what you’re eating or drinking: The rest of what you do each day plays a big role as well. In fact, the study found that people with the lowest vascular disease risk shared these three things in common: They drank tea regularly, didn’t smoke, and were highly active—folks who fit this “lifestyle profile” had a roughly 45% lower heart disease risk than those with none of those habits. This implies that tea wasn’t the only magic worker: Lifestyle mattered, too.

“Tea is rich in polyphenols, mainly flavonoids, which are plant compounds that support the lining of your blood vessels,” explains Dr. Davis. “That lining, called the endothelium, makes nitric oxide, which helps blood vessels relax and keeps blood flowing well. Flavonoids appear to support nitric oxide activity and may also help lower inflammation and limit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, which plays a role in plaque buildup.”

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Black tea’s fermentation, Dr. Davis notes, creates its own set of polyphenols including theaflavins, “which may help explain why it performed well here,” he adds.

The study highlights the reality that little habits add up to make a big difference. “There may also be a behavioral piece: A daily cup of tea often replaces a soda or sugary drink and can be a calming ritual,” notes Arash Bereliani, M.D., board-certified cardiologist and medical director of the Beverly Hills Institute for Cardiology and Preventive Medicine.

Although these findings found black tea to perform slightly better in terms of vascular disease, Michelle Routhenstein, M.S., R.D., preventive cardiology dietitian at EntirelyNourished.com stresses that both black and green tea are antioxidant-rich, and there’s no “right” answer for which kind you should drink. Also, just because the lowest estimated risk was observed among people who drank six to eight cups daily does not mean that everyone needs to drink that amount to benefit from it—or that there wasn’t a benefit to drinking less, she adds.

The bottom line

While the study presents some promising findings, it wasn’t set up in such a way as to show that drinking tea causes a reduction in vascular disease. It was an observational study, meaning the people were followed up to see how many people did and didn’t develop the condition, so it can’t show cause and effect.

As for the temperature component, participants merely self-reported the warmth of their tea—it wasn’t measured with a thermometer. The fact that those who called theirs “burning hot” experienced a higher disease risk is an association that warrants more investigation. However, researchers did note that the temperature-related findings are, at the very least, consistent with existing concerns that very hot beverages may increase disease risk, namely that of cancer.

The biggest takeaway? Regular tea-drinking can be a positive behavior, but it’s not the only thing you should be thinking about if you want to live your best and healthiest life. “Tea can be a helpful addition to a heart-healthy lifestyle, but it is just one piece of the puzzle,” explains Routhenstein. “The biggest priorities remain following a heart-healthy diet that meets your nutrient needs and supports healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels, getting regular physical activity, avoiding smoking, prioritizing adequate sleep, and managing blood pressure.”

It is also important to understand your individual cardiovascular risk and work with your healthcare team to identify areas that may need attention. “Prevention involves addressing the interconnected factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease, including inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, and elevated levels of cholesterol-carrying particles that can promote plaque buildup,” Routhenstein adds. “Small, consistent changes across several areas can have a meaningful impact on long-term heart health.”

Dr. Davis agrees: “The bigger message is that heart health comes from habits that stack together, and this study showed exactly that.”

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