Trends of tea in cardiovascular health and disease: A critical review

Background: Tea is one of the most common functional drinks in our daily life. Emerging evidence from experimental, epidemiological, and interventional studies have shown that tea consumption is inversely associated with cardiovascular disease development by reducing cardiovascular risk factors, such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and hyperglycemia. Tea phytochemicals exert cardiovascular protection via its anti-LDL oxidation, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic, and endothelial protective effects. Scope and approach: In this review, we provided a timely up-to-date overview of the cardiovascular benefits and molecular mechanisms of tea and its vasoactive components in cardiovascular health and diseases. It emphasizes the importance of tea drinking as part of lifestyle modification in cardiovascular disease prevention. Key findings and conclusions: The health benefits of tea in cardiovascular disease prevention reported in observational and interventional studies mainly arise from the presence of various antioxidants, especially flavonoids. The molecular targets of tea and its bioactive components include Nrf2 activation and NF-kB inhibition. In addition, biotechnological advances including deep sequencing and microbiota profiling are of great value to find novel molecular targets of tea. More large-scale randomized clinical trials using bioactive compounds from tea avoiding confounding factors are necessary to confirm the effects of tea consumption in cardiovascular disease prevention.