There appear to be beneficial effects on the skeleton.

First, the details.

• 1500 elderly women participated in a study designed to evaluate the benefits of calcium.
• However, at 5 years 1027 of these women answered a questionnaire to determine their usual tea intake and compare it to their areal bone mineral density (aBMD), which was used as an independent predictor for osteoporotic hip fracture.
• Another prospective analysis of 164 women assessed the relation of tea intake at the beginning of the study and aBMD from years 1 to 5.

And, the results.

• Total hip aBMD was a significant 2.8% greater in tea drinkers than in non-tea drinkers.
• In the prospective analysis over 4 years, tea drinkers lost an average of 1.6% of their total hip aBMD, while non-tea drinkers lost 4.0%, a significant difference.

The bottom line?
The authors concluded, “Tea drinking is associated with preservation of hip structure in elderly women.”

10/21/07 21:06 JR