‘3 cups of tea daily’ to fight brittle bones risk

IT IS the perfect excuse to sit down with a nice cup of tea.

Research s hows t hat t ea drinkers have stronger bones, cutting their risk of painful fractures, including broken hips.

Consuming just three cuppas a day is linked with a 30 per cent lower risk of breaks.

The Australian researchers said that effect is so big that tea could become a ‘major addition to the dietary prevention of fracture’.

Three million Britons have osteoporosis and brittle bones takes a heavy toll on health.

Around 300,000 weakened wrist, hip, spine and other bones are broken each year and 1,150 Britons die each month after breaking a hip.

Researchers from the Flinders University of South Australia tracked the health of almost 1,200 women for ten years.

The volunteers – who had an average age of 80 at the start of t he study – were r egularly questioned about their diet, with an emphasis on how much tea they drank.

During t he decade, t hey suffered 288 breaks, including 129 hip fractures.

But those who drank at least three cups of tea a day were

Third less likely to break a bone

almost a third less likely to break a bone than those who rarely or never consumed tea.

It is t hought t hat pl ant chemicals called f l avonoids strengthen the bones by speeding the building of new bone cells while slowing down the erosion of existing ones.

Coffee also contains flavonoids, but tea was by far the biggest source of the compounds in the women studied, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports.

Sarah Leyland, of the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS), said other research had suggested that drinking tea might help to prevent fractures. ‘It isn’t clear whether this i s because tea contains flavonoids or fluoride or something else,’ she added.

In Scotland, an estimated 250,000 people have osteoporosis, a figure which is likely to rise as the average age of the population increases.

A total of £192million is spent each year north of the Border on caring and treating people who have suffered hip fractures.

On current trends, the NOS predicts that within 20 years there could be as many as 19,000 hospital admissions f or hip fracture a year in Scotland.