Drinking tea may reduce diabetes
By Joseph Ostapiuk | jostapiuk@siadvance.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Scientists said drinking at least four cups of tea may lower the risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
A team of researchers from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in China conducted an analysis of 19 studies, including more than one million people across eight studies, to assess the connection between drinking moderate amounts tea and the development of the disease.
The findings, which will be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’s annual meeting in Sweden, potentially bolster research that has found drinking tea or coffee lowers the risk of cardiovascular problems and other issues.
“Our results are exciting because they suggest that people can do something as simple as drinking four cups of tea a day to potentially lessen their risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” lead author Xiaying Li said in a release.
The researchers first used data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey to track more than 5,000 adults who were first surveyed in 1997 before a 2009 follow-up found around 10% of participants developed type 2 diabetes.
After adjusting for other risk factors, like age and physical inactivity, the researchers found tea drinkers had a similar risk of developing diabetes compared to non-tea drinkers.
Next, the researchers reviewed nearly 20 studies to conduct a deeper analysis.
That study suggested drinking four daily cups of black, green or Oolong tea lowered the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 17% across a decade. That risk reduction was more muted — around 4% — for those who drank between one and three cups a day.