In this 5-year prospective study on older Chinese adults, increased risk of developing MetS was observed in habitual green tea drinkers as compared with non-habitual drinkers. A dose-response relationship was also observed with increased frequency of green tea consumption being associated with a higher risk of MetS. In addition, the association of tea consumption and individual components of MetS varied between men and women. These findings added novel knowledge to the current literatures regarding the controversial effect of tea consumption on cardiovascular and metabolic health among the elderly.
The main finding of our study was different from most studies, which reported beneficial effects of tea consumption for MetS and some of its individual components[4, 5, 18]. A systematic review and meta-analysis summarized the findings of 6 observational studies and demonstrated that tea consumption were associated with a reduced risk of MetS[19]. Meanwhile, null associations were also reported in some other studies [6, 7, 20]. Weak relation of tea with MetS pointed towards the potential importance of composition of polyphenols and the types of tea consumed, and these observations needs to be confirmed in well-designed cohort studies. Based on the results of our analysis, there is, however, an increased risk of developing MetS in in older adults who drank tea more frequently. Particularly, we found that habitual drinkers who drank tea more than 5 times per week were more susceptible to MetS. Excessive amounts of green tea consumption might lead to excessive amount of caffeine consumption[21], and concentrated herbal extracts from green tea may increase the burden of liver metabolism and may not be free of adverse effects under certain circumstances[22]. Moreover, we found that habitual drinkers were more likely to be alcohol consumers, as shown in Table 1. In rural China, people are used to drinking tea after drinking alcohol to prevent drunk. If the temperature of tea was not properly controlled, it damage the mucosa or accelerate metabolic reactions, including hastening the absorption of harmful substances in alcohol[23]. By leading the toxic acetaldehyde converted from alcohol to the kidney along with tea absorption before it decomposes, tea consumption after drinking could damage the kidney and eventually increase the burden of circulation. Further studies are warranted to validate these hypotheses.
With regards to the association between tea consumption and individual components of MetS, we observed a gender difference. Low HDL-C levels were related to tea consumption in men while tea consumption was positively associated with high BMI, elevated BP and the presence of diabetes mellitus in women. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon might be attributed to different lifestyles between men and women. For instance, women are less active than men and obese women are most functionally impaired, and had lower perceived behavioral control toward physical activity[24]. Men were more likely to smoke and drink alcohol. Physical activity, smoking and alcohol intake are well-established risk factors for MetS and thus may modify the tea-MetS association between men and women.
The public health implication of our findings needs to be discussed. Tea consumption is traditionally considered to be a promising non-pharmacological strategy for supplementing the management of hypertension, obesity or diabetes, especially in places where tea drinking is a widely accepted cultural practice. In the era of rapid population aging and high prevalence of chronic diseases, tea drinking is regarded as an inexpensive and applicable dietary practice, which may be clinically relevant and show its public health importance. However, our study indicated that these beneficial effects need carefully re-consideration, especially when the drinkers are restricted to older adults. Some other aspects such as frequency of drinking, way of preparations and time for drinking should also be taken into consideration. The findings might be important for formulating non-pharmacological strategies for supplementing the management of MetS.
Our study is a community-based cohort study with a large sample size and a reasonable follow-up rate. Therefore, we provided a more cogent evidence than case-control or cross-sectional studies. Several limitations should also be acknowledged. First, the included participants were restricted to older Chinese adults who lived in the eastern part of China with proportionately high prevalence and incidence of MetS and extensive extrapolation of the findings to other populations needs further clarification. Second, tea consumption was self-reported and thus may result in recall biases, especially in older adults with cognitive decline. Finally, although we had controlled for a wide range of confounders, the possibility of unmeasured and residual confounding such as chronic diseases or medication treatment cannot be fully excluded, which might distort the associations observed in this study.