Eight cuppas a day keeps hearts OK

The risk of heart disease could be reduced by 10 per cent if everyone took to drinking large amounts of tea, a study suggests.

Researchers found consuming around eight cups of black tea a day led to a significant lowering of blood pressure.

They estimated that in the general population this would result in a 10 per cent reduction in high blood pressure prevalence and a 7-10 per cent reduction in the risk of heart disease.

A group of 95 men and women aged 35 to 75 were given three cups of powdered black tea solids each day for six months, or a flavour-matched non-tea “placebo” drink.

The total dose consumed by the volunteers was equivalent to 8.58 cups of tea a day.

Participants had normal to high blood pressure readings at the start of the study. After six months, their blood pressure levels had reduced by between two and three millimetres of mercury.

The findings, from a team led by Dr Jonathan Hodgson, from the University of Western Australia, appear in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.