Moderate tea consumption, circulating biomarkers may improve bone mineral status

Moderate tea consumption and higher categories of selected circulating tea biomarkers appear to induce more favourable bone mineral measures, according to a study.

A total of 1,708 participants were included in the analysis. Significant tea consumption group × visit interactions were noted for whole-body, lumbar spine, and femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) and whole-body bone mineral content (BMC; p-interaction ranged from <0.001 to 0.022).

Moderate tea consumption showed the highest visit-averaged adjusted marginal mean z-scores (whole-body BMD: 0.107, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.025–0.190; lumbar spine: 0.090, 95 percent CI, 0.012–0.168; femoral neck BMD: 0.108, 95 percent CI, 0.029–0.187; p-diff ranged from <0.001 to 0.017).

Serum tea biomarkers analyses revealed the association between higher biomarker categories and more favourable bone mineral measures. However, the associations were not consistently linear, and several biomarkers exhibited nonmonotonic patterns. Furthermore, visit-averaged differences were most extensive across epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) categories.

In the study, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used at four repeated visits during a 13-year follow-up period to measure whole-body, total hip, lumbar spine, and femoral neck BMD and BMC. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was also used to quantify baseline serum flavan-3-ols, including epicatechin, EGCG, ECG, epigallocatechin, and catechin.

The investigators categorized tea consumption as non-, low-, moderate-, or high-frequency. They assessed visit-averaged bone mineral measures and longitudinal trajectories using multivariable linear mixed-effects models, including exposure × visit interactions.

“Tea is a dietary source of flavan-3-ols, which may influence bone health, but prospective evidence linking tea intake and its circulating biomarkers with longitudinal bone mineral status remains limited,” the investigators said.