For years, scientists have touted the benefits of tea for the heart. But a new study suggests that adding milk to your cup of tea, or drinking tea with milk (milk tea), can destroy all the healthy components of tea.
Milk tea could be a secret killer for women's hearts
The experiments showed that while tea improved blood flow by increasing the ability of artery walls to contract, milk completely blocked this healthy effect.
German researchers say the findings could explain why the UK's tea-drinking culture has not had a significant inhibitory effect on the prevalence of heart disease, as most people in the UK prefer to add milk to their tea.
Published in the European Heart Journal, the study involved 16 women who drank half a liter of freshly brewed tea, tea with skimmed milk, and plain water. Two hours later, the arteries in their forearms were examined. The results showed that the arterial walls of those who drank black tea had significantly improved contractility, but this effect was much less pronounced in the group that drank tea with milk.
Currently, cardiovascular disease is the leading single cause of death for women worldwide. Statistics show that the incidence of cardiovascular disease in women is 10 times that of breast cancer, making it the "number one killer" directly threatening women's lives. However, due to misconceptions, cardiovascular disease in women is easily overlooked, and by the time it is diagnosed, it is often very severe.
"For a long time, the results of epidemiological studies from various countries have consistently shown that the incidence and mortality of cardiovascular disease in men are higher than in women. Therefore, the situation of cardiovascular disease in women has not received much attention over the years," points out Dr. Yao Hua, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and the Provincial Cardiovascular Institute. In real life, most women know how to prevent breast cancer and skin cancer, but most women don't know their own cholesterol levels or worry about having a heart attack. For symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, discomfort, back pain, and abdominal pain, many women will choose to 'tough it out,' not realizing that these seemingly ordinary symptoms could be a strong signal that your cardiovascular system is showing signs of 'fatigue'!
Although women develop cardiovascular disease 10-15 years later than men, their symptoms are often more severe at the time of diagnosis. Dr. Yao Hua told reporters that in recent years, studies at home and abroad have shown that cardiovascular disease in women has its peculiarities, and atypical symptoms during onset are one of them. Therefore, in clinical practice, elderly women with a history of diabetes are more likely to have asymptomatic myocardial infarction than men, some present with heart failure as the first clinical manifestation, are prone to recurrent infarction, and are more susceptible to seasonal changes, with an increase in incidence and higher complications and mortality in autumn and winter. Another peculiarity is related to the autonomic nervous dysfunction that easily occurs in postmenopausal women. Experts say that this series of syndromes caused by neurological dysfunction can interfere with the true diagnosis of coronary heart disease in women, often delaying early treatment opportunities.
According to Yao Hua, over the past 20 years, while the mortality rate from cardiovascular disease in men has been continuously decreasing, the mortality rate in women has been on the rise. The mortality rate from coronary heart disease in postmenopausal women is higher than in men. A report from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) indicates that in developed countries and regions, two-thirds of women who die suddenly from cardiovascular disease have undiagnosed coronary heart disease. Additionally, data from the UK and other European countries show that a woman dies from heart disease every 6 minutes; 55% of deaths among European women are from cardiovascular disease, compared to 43% for men.