Natural News reports that drinking black tea every day may reduce your risk of Parkinson’s disease by up to 71%. A National Neuroscience Institute study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology looked at the number of Parkinson’s cases in about 63,000 Chinese men and women and compared the numbers with their intake of certain beverages.
The study concluded that a higher caffeine intake was associated with a 45% reduced risk of Parkinson’s. After the numbers were adjusted to take the caffeine into account, the researchers still found that those who drank at least 23 cups of black tea a month were 71% less likely to get Parkinson’s than those who drank less black tea!
The researchers found that, “Black tea, a caffeine-containing beverage, showed an inverse association with Parkinson’s disease risk that was not confounded by total caffeine intake or tobacco smoking. [This suggests that] ingredients of black tea other than caffeine appear to be responsible for the beverage’s inverse association with Parkinson’s disease.”
Previous studies on Parkinson’s and tea intake did not differentiate between green and black tea. Thanks to the flavonoids called catechins that are more complex in black tea (called thearubigins and theaflavins), the black tea is found to have the high protective effect against Parkinson’s. Researchers found no protective effect from green tea consumption.
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If this article is true I shouldn’t scare Parkinson’s at all because I drink my favourite black tea many times a day. I like this drink!