British “Medical Express”: Drinking tea can reduce high blood pressure

British “Medical Express”: Drinking tea can reduce high blood pressure.  Drinking tea can activate its beneficial antihypertensive properties, thereby reducing high blood pressure.

This study found that adding milk will prevent the beneficial activation of KCNQ5 in tea. The new findings explain the antihypertensive properties of green tea and black tea.

A new study published by the University of California, Irvine in Cell Physiology and Biochemistry shows that compounds in green and black tea can relax blood vessels by activating ion channel proteins in blood vessel walls, which helps explain the blood pressure reduction of tea Characteristics, and may design new antihypertensive drugs based on this.

Studies have found that the two catechin-type flavonoids in tea (epicatechin gallate and epicatechin-3-gallate) can activate an ion channel protein called KCNQ5 to make potassium The ions diffuse outside the cell, thereby reducing the excitability of the cell. Collaborators from the University of Copenhagen confirmed that catechins are expected to relax blood vessels after activating KCNQ5 in the smooth muscles of the inner walls of blood vessels.

The leader of this research, Dr. Geoffrey Abbott, professor of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at UCI School of Medicine, explained that through computer modeling and mutagenesis studies, we found that specific catechins combined with the bottom of the voltage sensor in KCNQ5 can Makes the channel easier and earlier to open during cell excitation. Identifying KCNQ5 as a new target for the hypertension properties of tea catechins will help optimize medicinal chemistry and improve efficacy or curative effect.

In addition to controlling vascular tension, KCNQ5 can also be expressed in various parts of the brain to regulate electrical activity and signal conduction between neurons. Pathogenic KCNQ5 gene mutations can impair its channel function, leading to epileptic encephalopathy (a developmental disorder that is severely debilitating and causes frequent seizures). Since catechins can cross the blood-brain barrier, the discovery of its ability to activate KCNQ5 may indicate a mechanism in the future that can repair broken KCNQ5 channels to improve brain excitability disorders caused by its dysfunction.

The production and consumption of tea has a history of more than 4,000 years. At present, the daily consumption of tea in the world is more than 2 billion cups of tea, second only to water consumption. The three commonly used caffeine-containing teas (green tea, oolong tea and black tea) are all made from the leaves of the green tea tree. The difference lies in the degree of fermentation during the tea production process.

In countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, black tea is usually mixed with milk for drinking, but this study found that adding milk will prevent the beneficial activation of KCNQ5 in tea. But Abbott believes that this does not mean that tea and milk cannot be co-drinked. We believe that the environment in people’s stomach separates catechins from the proteins and other molecules in milk, lest these molecules prevent catechins from exerting their beneficial effects. .

Other studies have also confirmed this hypothesis, whether or not milk is added to tea, tea shows the benefits of lowering blood pressure. The research team also found through mass spectrometry that heating green tea to 35°C will change its chemical composition, thereby increasing its effect of activating KCNQ5.

Abbott explained that both iced tea and hot tea can reach 35°C after entering the body, because the body temperature is about 37°C. Therefore, only drinking tea can activate its beneficial antihypertensive properties.

(source:internet, reference only)

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