                                ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, March 25, 1996                 TAG: 9603250129
SECTION: NATL/INTL                PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: CHICAGO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
note: below

STUDY: TEA, FRUIT CUT RISK OF STROKE 4.7 CUPS A DAY DID IT IN HOLLAND

Instead of tea and crumpets, try tea and apples - it could reduce your risk of stroke, a new European study suggests.

Long-term consumption of black tea - the kind most Americans and Europeans drink - and of other foods containing chemicals called flavonoids was associated with a much lower risk of stroke in a study of 552 Dutch men.

Flavonoids are vitaminlike compounds that occur naturally in tea, fruits and vegetables. They make blood cells called platelets less prone to clotting, and they act as antioxidants, countering the artery-damaging potential of highly reactive free radical chemicals.

In the study, men with a high flavonoid intake had a 73 percent lower risk of stroke during 15 years of follow-up compared with men with a low intake of flavonoids, researchers report in today's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Association. Forty-two of the 552 men suffered strokes.

The men in the study got about 70 percent of their flavonoids from drinking black tea. About 10 percent came from eating apples, researchers said.

While the contribution of apples was too small to measure, men who drank more than 4.7 cups of tea a day had a 69 percent reduced risk of stroke compared with men who drank less than 2.6 cups a day, said the researchers of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection in Bilthoven, the Netherlands.

Their study is the first to show a protective effect of flavonoid intake on stroke, said the authors, led by Dr. Sirving O. Keli. Previous studies have linked flavonoids to protection from heart attacks.

A researcher with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md., who was not involved in the study, said it was done well but needs support from other research.

Also, she said, further research needs to include other racial groups and women.

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by CNB