Protecting Your Vision
A cup of hot tea may help protect your vision. A study found significantly lower rates of glaucoma among daily tea drinkers. Glaucoma causes a buildup of fluid in the eye, causing pressure that damages the optic nerve. It is a leading cause of blindness.
“Interestingly, it was only hot, caffeinated tea that was associated with a lower glaucoma risk,” said UCLA researcher Anne Coleman, MD, PhD. Decaffeinated hot tea, regular or decaf coffee, and iced tea did not have the same effect.
Helping Your Liver
Drinking coffee or herbal tea may protect the liver from hardening due to scar tissue (also known as fibrosis). In a study of more than 2,400 people, those who drank herbal tea or three or more cups of coffee per day had healthier livers compared to those who did not drink herbal tea or who drank less coffee.
Better Brain Power
A recent long-term study with more than 130,000 participants found that drinking one to two cups of tea daily was linked to an 18 percent lower risk of dementia, even in people genetically predisposed to dementia. The same finding was true for coffee drinkers who drank two to three cups of coffee a day. Both coffee and tea contain beneficial polyphenols and caffeine thought to support brain health.
