Prevent abdominal aortic rupture – Drink green tea!

Zee Media Bureau

Tokyo: Green tea, as it turns out, is not only good as an antioxidant for the body, but also helps in the prevention of artery explosion!

If you love green tea and can't go without your daily cup, then you're doing your heart a big favour. Researchers have said that your green tea intake can save you from abdominal aortic rupture – a deadly condition of the main artery of the body that often turns out to be a silent killer.

Green tea contains polyphenols, which counteracts the abdominal aortic aneurysm – a condition in which the main artery becomes overstretched and bloated.

"Abdominal aortic aneurysms often go unnoticed because there are no symptoms until they burst," says Kenji Minakata from Kyoto University in Japan.

Without treatment, abdominal aortic aneurysms eventually rupture and lead to death 50 per cent of the time.

"The type of polyphenol found in green tea has recently been shown to regenerate elastin, an essential protein that gives the artery its stretchy, yet sturdy texture," explained lead author Shuji Setozaki from Kyoto University.

Previous studies had shown that drinking green tea can prevent cancer, heart diseases, inflammation, as well as oxidation.

"Daily intake of green tea should be considered as a new preventative strategy for abdominal aortic aneurysm," Hidetoshi Masumoto from Kyoto University suggested, adding that Japan's favourite beverage might be offering more than just a relaxing tea break.

"Japanese people have the longest lifespan in the world, and studies show that 80 per cent of the population drink green tea on a daily basis," Masumoto noted in the paper published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

(With IANS inputs)