Tea and the heart: large China study links regular tea drinking to lower risk

People who regularly drink tea develop heart and blood vessel disease less often. That is the finding of a large observational study from China published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, as reported by CNN on Oct. 21, 2026, and by New Zealand public broadcaster 1News on Oct. 23, 2026. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College analysed data from the China Kadoorie Biobank, following 485,934 people aged 30 to 79 for a median of 9.05 years. Over that period, 14,863 cases of vascular disease were recorded, covering heart and cerebrovascular disease, pulmonary heart disease and peripheral artery disease.

According to the authors, people who drank tea at least three days a week had about an 11% lower relative risk than those who did not drink tea regularly. The science portal scinexx notes that this is a relative reduction, not a drop of 11 percentage points. The association was more consistent for black tea than for green tea, and the risk was lowest with tea of moderate strength. Tea drunk "burning hot", however, was linked to a 16% higher relative risk compared with people who did not drink tea regularly, CNN reported. The lowest estimated risk was at six to eight cups a day among weekly drinkers, but the authors explicitly caution against reading this as a recommended intake. Risk was lowest among people who drank tea, did not smoke and were physically active.

Independent experts urge caution. The study is observational and shows an association, not cause and effect. Tea intake and drinking temperature were self-reported only once, cup sizes were not standardized, and the data come from China alone. "This was an observational study and other differences in people’s diets and lifestyles could help explain the findings," said Dell Stanford, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, according to 1News. The study, she said, "doesn’t prove that a daily cuppa protects your heart."