Chinese tea consumption and lower risk of Helicobacter infection

Background: Our first study had shown that Chinese tea has anti-Helicobacter activity. The present study investigated the relationship between patients'Helicobacter status and the history of Chinese tea consumption.

Methods: Chinese patients who had their first upper endoscopy were recruited. Before the procedure, patients completed questionnaires about their current Chinese tea consumption habits and those when they were around 10-25 years old. This information was used to calculate the tea consumption indices (TCI). Gastric biopsies (two from the antrum and two from the corpus) were taken for histological examination for Helicobacter.

Results: Eighty patients were recruited. Eight patients were rejected because of either an incomplete questionnaire, absence of gastric biopsy or a suspected history of treatment for Helicobacter infection. Of the 72 patients, 42 (58.3%) were Helicobacter positive. The age, sex ratio and indications for endoscopy were similar in both Helicobacter-positive and -negative groups. Classifying patients using either current, past or total TCI, patients with high tea consumption had significantly lower Helicobacter infection rate than those with low tea consumption (45% compared to 74%, 42% compared to 67% and 40% compared to 83%, respectively). Helicobacter-negative patients had higher overall TCI than Helicobacter-positive patients (28.2:17.3). When current and previous histories were analyzed separately, Helicobacter-negative patients also had a trend towards higher TCI currently (16.6:11.0) and in their 20s (11.6:6.1).

Conclusions: There is a significant inverse relationship between Chinese tea consumption and Helicobacter infection. Chinese tea consumption may decrease the chance of Helicobacter infection.