Black tea is a common source of flavonoids, which have been suggested to contribute to improve vascular health.
Now, a small study conducted at the University of Western Australia has shown that drinking black tea three cups a day, which provided approximately 400 mg/day of polyphenols, was able to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure between 2 to 3 mm Hg.
In this study, investigators randomized 95 men and women with a daytime systolic blood pressure between 115 and 150 mm Hg to three cups of black tea daily or to placebo.
At the end of 6 months, individuals who consumed daily black tea had a significantly lower systolic blood pressure (2.0 mmHg lower) and diastolic blood pressure (2.1 mm Hg lower) than patients in the control group.
This difference in blood pressure translated to a 10% reduction in the prevalence of hypertension and a 7% to 10% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease.
If you have high blood pressure (systolic blood pressure > 140mm Hg) or have prehypertension (systolic blood pressure between 120 and 139 mmHg), you might like to consider drinking daily black tea and perform regular exercise instead of taking blood pressure lowering pills.
Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2012
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