| Tea's Role in Immune Function |
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University
recently published novel new data indicating that tea contains a component
that can help the body ward off infection and disease and that drinking tea may
strengthen the immune system.
The researchers identified a substance in tea, L-theanine, which primes the
immune system in fighting infection, bacteria, viruses and fungi. A subsequent
human clinical trial showed that certain immune cells of participants who drank
five cups of Black Tea a day for two to four weeks secreted up to four times
more interferon, an important part of the body's immune defense, than at
baseline. Consumption of the same amount of coffee for the same duration had
no effect on interferon levels. According to the authors, this study suggests that
drinking Black Tea provides the body's immune system with natural resistance to
microbial infection.
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