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Mind & Mood
Drinking both coffee and tea linked to lower risks for stroke and dementia
- By Heidi Godman, Executive Editor, Harvard Health Letter
News briefs
Are you a coffee drinker, or are you more of a tea person? Consider being both. A study published Nov. 16, 2021, in PLOS Medicine found that having both coffee and tea in the diet was associated with a reduced risk of dementia and stroke. Researchers evaluated the health and self-reported coffee and tea drinking habits of more than 365,000 older adults in the United Kingdom who were followed for 11 years. Compared with people who did not drink any tea or coffee, people who drank two to three cups of coffee as well as two to three cups of tea per day had a 28% lower risk of dementia and a 32% lower risk of stroke during the study period. The combination of both drinks in the diet appeared to have a stronger association than just having one or the other. The study is only observational and doesn’t prove that drinking coffee and tea prevents stroke or dementia. But we know that the beverages both contain polyphenols — plant chemicals that may help fight chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is associated with both dementia and cardiovascular disease.
Image: © Serhii Sobolevskyi/Getty ImagesAbout the Author
Heidi Godman, Executive Editor, Harvard Health Letter
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