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The results of an 11-year prospective cohort study of over 40,000 Japanese adults was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September, indicating that consumption of green tea is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes and due to cardiovascular disease (CVD).1 The investigators of the Ohsaki National Health Insurance Cohort Study administered a series of questionnaires to the participants, all aged 40-79 at the start of the study in 1994. Follow-up work was conducted for up to 11 years. The investigators ultimately found that green tea consumption was inversely associated with mortality due to all causes and that this association was more pronounced in women. They also found that green tea consumption was inversely associated with mortality due to CVD, but not with that due to cancer.
A story recently published in HerbalEGram and HerbalGram 72 noted that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected a company’s petition to allow a health claim for the cardiovascular benefits of green tea in May.2 It is not clear to what extent the availability of this new publication might have had on the FDA’s decision-making process when it denied the petition.
-Courtney Cavaliere
References
1. Kuriyama S, Shimazu T, Ohmori K, Kikuchi N, Nakaya N, Nishino Y, Tsubono Y, Tsuji I. Green tea consumption and mortality due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all causes in Japan. JAMA. 2006;296:1255-1265.
2. Cavaliere C. FDA rejects proposed health claim for cardiovascular benefits of green tea. HerbalGram. 2006;72:60-61. [In press]
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