A few cups of black tea lowers your blood pressure

 Jan 25, 2012 By Debbie Nicholson Published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine comes a new study that suggests consuming three cups of black tea daily just may help lower your blood pressure. Black tea has been associated to numerous health benefits including lowering your risk for due to the phenols those strong antioxidants along with the maganese. In this new study black tea tested against a placebo to determine if consumption of this beverage over a length of time had any effects in lowering blood pressure. The study consisted of 95 participants both male and female, age range 35 to 75 years of age and similar weights. Had a systolic blood pressure (top number in reading that measures blood pressure while the heart is beating) with readings ranging from 115 to 150. Participants had been divided into two groups. Group one consumed three cups of regular leaf tea with contents of 1,493 milligrams of powdered black tea solids and also contained 429 milligrams of polyphenols and 96 milligrams of caffeine. The other group had consumed a placebo which had the same flavor and caffeine content but had no black tea solids. Both groups had participated for six months. A healthy reading of systolic blood pressure is below 120 and 80 for diastolic pressure (bottom number of blood pressure while heart is relaxed.) At the close of the study, the group who had consumed the black tea had seen an average reduction of two to three points in their average twenty-four hour average systolic blood pressure levels. According to researcher Res/Prof Dr. Johnathan M. Hodgson, PhD, School of Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Western Australia and associates had written "At a population level, the observed differences in BP (blood pressure) would be associated with a 10% reduction in the prevalence of hypertension and a 7% to 10% reduction in the risk of heart disease and stroke. A study in Greece had indicated that drinking green tea had remarkably increased artery dilation with thirty minutes. Another study of the medical college of National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan had found that just a half of cup of green tea or oolong tea drank each day by men and women on a daily basis for at least one year also may lower the risk for high blood pressure almost by 50%. That study had appeared in the July 26th , 2004 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study had consisted of 1,507 Chinese men and women with no previous history of high blood pressure. The study revealed that around forty percent of participants were frequent tea drinkers and had been consuming at least one half cup of tea each day for a year or more. Ninety percent of participants had drank either green or oolong tea.  After taking into account the factors of obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, consumed few vegetables, higher sodium intake and did not consume tea on a regular basis along with other factors associated to high blood pressure and heart disease. Researchers had found that tea drinkers were much less likely to develop high blood pressure in comparison to those who did not drink tea. Either way you look at it whether it is green or black tea, just one cup has more antioxidant power than a half of cup of strawberries, spinach, broccoli or carrots. In American women Coronary Heart Disease is the number one killer claiming the lives of more than 50,000 women each year. High blood pressure increases your risk for heart diseases and heart failure. Grab a cup of tea whether it is green or black both teas show benefits when it comes to lowering high blood pressure.