It's considerably well known that the tea leaf has certain health profits owing to its flavonoids detected in both green and black tea. It's evoked that tea with milk and sugar in reality ruins it antioxidant attributes. But recent studies have suggested tea might have bad effects as well.

In recent times we have seen good research in relation to the health benefits and tea. However, we are still yet to see good evidence of tea to cardiovascular health benefits. According to one study just recently published it suggests that there is no real significant difference between people taking tea theaflavins alone or the tea theaflavins or catechins combination as compared to controls.

The study compared 2 groups; one taking no theaflavins and other consumed one capsule of TFs and catechins. The study revealed that there was no significant lowering of the bad cholesterol seen with either theaflavins alone or the theaflavins and catechins combined.

Another interesting study associate with black tea is of major concern is in relation to breast cancer. The research compared the link between caffeinated coffee and black tea with the incidence of breast caner. The study revealed that could be a possible link between drinking black tea with breast cancer. This was suggested as there as an increase in the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status in the tumors. However, the study also concluded that there is no risk in coffee intake and breast cancer. These are interesting studies and require further investigation.

In addition, another modern research indicated that tea may subvert immunity to pathogens like methicillin-resistant staphylococci aureus (MRSA) if one is taking antibiotics such as amoxicillin. Therefore it is advised that consumption of tea might not be a good idea when taking antibiotics.

References and further studies

Trautwein EA, Du Y, Meynen E, Yan X, Wen Y, Wang H, Molhuizen HO. 2009. Purified black tea theaflavins and theaflavins catechin supplements did not affect serum lipids in healthy individuals with mildly to moderately elevated cholesterol concentrations. European Journal of Nutrition.

Larsson SC, Bergkvist L, Wolk A. 2009. Coffee and black tea consumption and risk of breast cancer by estrogen and progesterone receptor status in a Swedish cohort. Cancer Causes Control.

Peng Q, Huang Y, Hou B, Hua D, Yao F, Qian Y. 2009. Green tea extract weakens the antibacterial effect of amoxicillin in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infected mice. Phytotherapy Research.

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