Green tea may protect against heart attack

A recent study shows that drinking green tea every day may be good for the heart. There are probably many factors that explain the difference in heart disease rates. Green tea may boost heart health because it contains high levels of substances called flavonoids. These plant compounds, which are found in a variety of fruits and vegetables as well as in tea and red wine, are thought to boost health in part by combating oxidation, a process in which cell-damaging substances called free radicals accumulate. Oxidative damage can be caused by outside factors, such as cigarette smoking, or by factors on the cellular level. Oxidation is suspected of increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke and several other diseases. Several studies have found that people who consume lots of flavonoids are less likely to die from coronary artery disease, and another study linked high flavonoid consumption to a reduced risk of heart attack. Researchers from National Defence Medical College, Saitama, Japan analysed 393 patients who were undergoing a procedure called angiography to see whether they had coronary artery disease. Many of the participants had risk factors for heart and artery disease, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. They found that people who drank green tea were less likely to have a heart attack. But they did not detect a link between the number of cups of green tea a person drank each day and the risk of coronary artery disease or the severity of artery disease. However, In the study, people who drank at least one cup of green tea per day were 42% less likely to have a heart attack than people who did not drink green tea. Although people in the study who drank one or more cups of green tea were no less likely to have artery disease than people who did not drink tea, they were much less likely to have a heart attack.