Green tea has been used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine to control bleeding and heal wounds, aid digestion, improve heart and mental health, and regulate body temperature.
Recent studies have shown green tea can potentially have positive effects on everything from weight loss to liver disorders. These studies present various findings, but more evidence is required before these possible health benefit links are proved definitive.
1) A 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that green tea consumption is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes, including cardiovascular disease. The study followed over 40,000 Japanese participants between the ages of 40 and 79 for 11 years, starting in 1994. The participants who drank at least 5 cups of green tea per day had a significantly lower risk of dying (especially from cardiovascular disease) than those who drank less than one cup of tea per day.
2) A 2013 meta-study of published studies in 2011 found that consuming green tea, either by drinking a beverage or ingesting a capsule, was linked to significant but modest reductions in LDL or "bad" cholesterol.
3) Drinking green tea or coffee on a regular basis is associated with a reduced risk of stroke, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. The lead author of the study, Dr. Yoshihiro Kokubo, Ph.D., said, "This is the first large-scale study to examine the combined effects of both green tea and coffee on stroke risks. You may make a small but positive lifestyle change to help lower the risk of stroke by adding daily green tea to your diet."