Tea and Heart Disease: 11% Lower Risk in China Study
A Journal of Internal Medicine paper followed 485,934 adults in China for about nine years. Regular tea drinkers had a lower risk of blood vessel disease, but the study does not prove cause.
Adults in China who drink tea regularly had an 11 percent lower risk of blood vessel disease than those who do not, according to a paper published on October 21, 2026 in the Journal of Internal Medicine (publisher Wiley, DOI 10.1111/joim.70172). The study is observational, so it describes an association between a habit and an outcome, not proof that tea protects the heart.
Who was followed and what was measured?
The research covered 485,934 adults in China. They were followed for a median of 9.05 years, meaning half of the participants were followed for less time and half for longer. During that period, 14,863 cases of disease were recorded across several groups: cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease (conditions affecting the blood vessels of the brain), pulmonary heart disease and peripheral artery disease.
Risk was compared between people who drink tea regularly and those who do not. The 11 percent difference applies to that whole group of outcomes together, not to each disease individually.
How many cups a day?
The lowest risk was estimated at around 6 to 8 cups a day, among people who drink tea at least once a week. The description of the study available to us does not give the size of a cup, so that figure cannot be converted into a volume. It should be read as a statistical finding from one population, not as a recommendation.
Black or green, warm or scalding?
The authors compared both types of tea and its strength. Black tea was more consistently linked to lower risk than green tea. Tea of moderate strength was linked to the lowest risk, while tea described as scalding hot was linked to a higher risk of blood vessel disease.
The press release does not explain why, so there is no basis here for a conclusion about the mechanism.
Tea, cigarettes and exercise
The researchers also looked at tea alongside other habits. The authors described the result in the paper this way, in our translation:
“Joint analyses showed that tea consumption, smoking status and physical activity were collectively associated with vascular risk, with the favorable combination of regular tea drinking, not smoking and high physical activity associated with the lowest risk.”
In other words, the fewest cases of disease were among people who drank tea regularly, did not currently smoke and were very physically active at the same time. Tea was not singled out as the only factor, and the study does not show how much of that difference belonged to tea itself.
What this study does not show
Observational studies record what people do and what happens to them later, but they do not assign habits. People who drink tea may differ from those who do not in other ways, and a design like this cannot fully rule such differences out. That is why the finding is described as an association, not a cause.
The press release that reported the research did not name the authors or the cohort from which participants were recruited, so the sample details cannot be checked further without the paper itself. The result applies to adults in China and may not hold for other populations or other tea-drinking habits. For now, there is no data to suggest that drinking more cups would lower an individual’s risk.
