I wanted to make a quick journal entry and share my insights on the benefits of tea drinking & some ways to rationalize the current scientific literature related to tea. My objective is to find out what are the real benefits of drinking tea and if it can have a positive impact on my daily life. I previously worked as a chemist researching Arsenic trioxide as a treatment for a rare type of cancer called acute promyelocytic leukemia. Funnily enough this drug was discovered from Chinese medicine, isolated, passed human trials then turned into an FDA approved commercial drug “Trisenox” that costs $13,634 USD per vial. The take home I had from that experience is that there is indeed a wealth of beneficial or medicinal compounds in Chinese medicine (and possibly tea), but the process of isolation, human testing and scientific proof is long and expensive.

Moving onto Tea – I was initially surprised at the lack of understanding we have. Even for topics such as Theabrownins, many of the studies were done on rat models and we simply don’t have large randomized human trials to produce FDA approved drugs. There are also additional complexity because tea contains more than 291 voilatile organic compounds and 83 odor-active compounds. This means it’s very easy for a paper to look at a single compound (or group of compounds) and say “it’s good for you because it helps fat digestion”, and another paper to look at another compound and make the opposite argument that “it’s carcinogenic”. In many ways this is why non-scientific articles and videos have many ways of phrasing why tea is good for you and many different angles to approach the topic. You can reference https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963996921007997 and they break down the different components of tea and studies done on each component. Looking at the table, it’s obvious that we’re a good 10-20 years away from a scientifically good understanding of the topic. In other words, it won’t be a case of Arsenic Trioxide – where we can isolate an individual compound that can treat an illnesses that can pass FDA approval.

We shouldn’t disregard tea – there are already a huge number of studies done on the topic and it’s clear from animal studies that tea can make a huge positive impact on our bodies. What I think is very interesting is Tea’s impact on our Gut Microbiome (GM). In recent years, the Gut Microbiome become a hot topic as it’s linked human health, including digestion, nutrient absorption, immune system regulation, and even mental health. What’s interesting is that Tea has both a direct and indirect effect on our GM. It’s important to point out that studies on this are even harder than my work as a chemist – the microbiome constantly evolves over time and has many groups of species that work with (or against) each other. https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/29/17/4020 is a good paper that highlights where we are at. The overall the consensus seems to be that Tea’s indirect effect on the Gut is measurable and positive. I’m particularly interested on it’s long-term effects in relation to neurodegenerative diseases and obesity. Neurodegenerative diseases are a major concern for me personally. I feel as I’m getting older, my brain just doesn’t perform as well and it’s easier for me to be depressed. It’s something I really want to work on and if tea can make a positive impact on my mental health – then it’s worth the price of admission. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25657295 Meta-analyses show higher tea intake associated with lower depression and the slow down of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Unfortunately, both these diseases don’t have a silver bullet cure, and maybe we’re 10-15 years for isolating the drugs to fix this. But if we see positive impacts now, then starting a tea habit is a great start.

Something I also want to note here is that every person is different – we can respond very differently to tea or coffee drinking. The great news is that if we start developing awareness early, we can be ahead of game. As crude as it sounds, I’ve been noticing I have less constipation after drinking tea so that’s a good start.