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 ⁴⁵.

This article is courtesy of the Tea Association of the United States, teausa.com