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An age-old story has it that some 5000 years ago, a few tea leaves blew into a cup of hot water held by the mythical Chinese emperor Shen Nung. the ruler declared the resulting brew a considerable improvement over plain water. Moreover, he recommended it as a remedy for kidney trouble, fever, chest infection and tumors “that come about the head.”

Shen’s prescription may have been extravagant. But today’s biomedical researchers are finding evidence to confirm other centuries-old lore about the drink’s powers to prevent illness and prolong life.

“It appears that the components in tea might help reduce the risk of a number of major chronic diseases, such as stroke, heart atack and some cancers,” says Dr. John Weisburger, a senior member of the American Health Foundation, a research center in Valhalla, New York.

Drinking tea may even fight tooth decay. All this is good news fro most of the planet: tea is the world’s most widely consumed beverage, next to water, with an estimated one billion cups drunk daily.

ANCIENT TONIC.
In countless cultures throughout history, tea has been regarded as a medicinal wonder. Over a thousand years ago Buddhist monks drank tea for religious reasons - to help them stay away during meditation. (This effect we now know is caused by caffeine; tea roughly half the caffeine of coffee.)

The monks also believed tea had curative powers, and as Buddhis, spread, so did tea - and the claims for Shogun Minamoto Sanetomo lay at death’s door from overfeasting when a monk prescribed a regimen of prayer and tea. When the shogun recovered, that was evidence enough for his countrymen to take up the brew.

The Dutch brought tea from China to europe in the 17th century, where it was sold in apothecary shops, the forerunners of today’s oharmacies. Tea drinkers are “exempt from all maladies and reach an extreme old age,” enthused Dutch physician Nikolas Tulp in his Observationes Medicine in 1641.

There were detractors: A German physician claimed that tea hastened the death of those over 40. In England, the physician to George III warned that tea drove people crazy (but didn’t say whether the brew was responsible for George’s apparent insanity).

In the 18th century, fashion triumphed over medical debate when England’s queen Anne chose tea over ale as her regular breakfast drink. Its popularity with women was bosted by the fact that tea shops admitted women while coffee-houses did not.

For a time, tea drinking was abandoned in Colonial America. When the British imposed tazes on tea, Colonists protested by requiring a permit to buy tea - even for medicinal purposes - in some communities. Later, hotheaded protesters crept aboard British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

HOW TEA HELPS.
One way the brew saved lives in the past is that boiling water kills disease-carrying bacteria. Now researchers are investigating what’s behind the other health-giving properties as well.

Tea leaves come from a tropical and subtropicalevergreen known to scientists as Camellia sinensis. All 3000 different varieties of tea consumed in the world coem from this one planet and its hybrids. After the tea leaves are harvested, it’s the method of processing that turns them into one of three basic forms of tea - green, oolong and black.

More than three-quarters of the tea harvested in the world becomes black tea, the form consumed by most Americans and Europeans. Leaves are crushed and exposed tot he air to undergo chemical before they are dried. This turns the leaves brown and accounts for black tea’s distinctive taste.

Green tea, the oldest form, is favored mainly in Japan and China. Here the leaves undergo less processing: only heated and dried, they retain their green color. Oolong is a form halfway between balck and green.

All three types have healthful effects and contain biochemical compounds called polyphenols, which include flavonoids. Also found in fruits and vegetables, flavonoids are antioxidants, which prevent the cell damage thought to contribute to more than 50 disease.

Gren tea has been found to conatin the flavonoid EGCg, a potent antioxidant. Black tea has similar disease-preventing effects, reports biochemist Allan Conney of Rutgers university. researchers have not yet determined whether decaffeination removes tea’s health benefits.

In one Dutch study, men who drank between four and five cups of black tea a day had a nearly 70-percent reduced risk of stroke compared with those who drink two cups or less. Another 1993 study reported that higher black-tea consumption corresponded with fewer fatal heart attacks.

“The key protective factor does appear to be the flavonoids,” says John Folts, director of the University of Wisconsin Medical School’s Coronary Artery Thrombosis Research and Prevention Center. He has found that black tea flavonoids inhibit blood platelets from cluming, preventing the dangerous clots that lead to almost all heart attacks and most strokes. Other studies have found that some tea drinkers have lower cholesterol levels and lower blood pressure - althought it’s unclear if tea is the actual cause.

More than 20 studies on animals have indicated that tea may prevent some cancers, including those of the digestive and respiratory tracts and the skin. Once again, polyphenols are thought to be the major disease-preventing ingredients. “Along with eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, drinking tea may turn out to be a cheap and practical way to reduce the risk of certain cancers,” asserts Weisburger.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University Cleveland found that applying green tea was up to 90 percent effective in preventing sunburns, which can lead to skin cancer. Says dermatologist Hasan Mukhtar, who headed the unpublished study “In the future I expect it to be an ingredient un sunscreens.” Scientists caution, though, that tea may be protective against some cancers but not others because of the disease’s different causes.

Finally, since tea contains flouride, it can strengthen tooth enamol and help prevent tooth decay. In laboratory studies, Japanese researchers found that tea also keeps dental plaque from forming and kills some oral bacteria that can cause gum disease.

A LIFT TO THE SPIRIT.
How much tea do you need to drink to get its health benefits? Studies suggest four or five servings per day, says Weisburger; others say fewer servings might help. Researchers are unsure whether adding lemon or milk to tea makes it less beneficial. Adding sugar may promote tooth decay. So until more is known, it’s probably smart to drink your tea straight up.

Fortunately, drinking iced tea that has been brewed is just as beneficial as drinking hot tea, says Weisburger. This is good news in the United States, where iced tea was served as early as 1904 at the St, Louis World’s Fair. Today Americans drink nearly 80 percent of their tea iced  enough to fill roughly 128,000 swimming pools.

Modern research is confirming an ancient proverb; “Drinking tea each day will starve the doctor.” But no research is needed to prove that a soothing cup of tea can also lift the spirit. As the Chinese sage T’ien Yitheng observed, “Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.”