Tea and Bones

Drinking green tea could help keep arthritis at bay, say scientists. Researchers at the University of Sheffield have found that two compounds found in green tea can help prevent osteoarthritis by blocking the enzyme that destroys cartilage. Green tea, first discovered in China nearly 5,000 years ago, has long been thought to be beneficial to health. The Arthritis Research Campaign, which partly funded the research, said the initial results were promising. A spokeswoman said: "These findings are of great interest, and although further research needs to be done, in the mean time people should drink green tea as it's not going to do them any harm - and may in fact do them a lot of good." (BBC News 15 February, 2003)

In a study of 497 men and 540 women, 30 years and older, those with a history of tea consumption of between 6 and 10 years showed higher bone mineral density of the lumbar spine than non tea drinkers, and those with over 10 years history of tea consumption showed the highest bone mineral density in all measured regions of the body. (Arch Intern Med. 2002;162:1001-1006).