Green Tea and Coffee Reduce Stroke Risk

Green tea is considered as a natural gift since it is known to keep one healthy and fit. The same goes with coffee, as it stimulates one into action. If you are a routine coffee or tea drinker, you can continue with the habit, as researchers have found that it lowers one's risk of stroke considerably.

A study conducted by Japanese researchers suggests that drinking green tea or coffee daily reduces the risk of stroke by 20 percent.

The study was conducted on 83,000 Japanese adults belonging to the age group of 45-74. The participants were monitored for 13 years. During the course of a decade, researchers analyzed the participant's hospitals records and death certificates. They concentrated more on data related to heart diseases, strokes and cause of death. They took various factors into consideration such as age, lifestyle, sex, diet, exercise, smoking habits and weight.

They noticed that those who drank one cup of coffee or two-four cups of green tea everyday reduced the chance of stroke by 14-20 percent. 

"This is the first large-scale study to examine the combined effects of both green tea and coffee on stroke risks," the study's lead author Yoshihiro Kokubo said in a statement. "You may make a small but positive lifestyle change to help lower the risk of stroke by adding daily green tea to your diet."

The reason these two beverages have this effect remains a mystery. But researchers predict that regularly drinking either tea or coffee benefits cardiovascular health as it partly prevents the formation of blood clots. The presence of the chlorogenic acid in coffee reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, therefore reducing the risk of stroke, while the presence of antioxidants catechins in green tea helps in preventing stroke.

The details of the finding were published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.