Title : Deciphering the remarkable potential of dark tea against metabolic syndrome
Abstract:
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of chronic metabolic disorders, including dyslipidemia, abdominal obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, that co-occur in an individual more often than might be expected by chance. Humans are currently experiencing global epidemics of MetS, with approximately 10-60% of individuals suffering from MetS across diverse ethnic, gender, and age groups. It elevated the risk not only of metabolic disorders but also of cardiovascular disease and death, as demonstrated by epidemiological studies that the overall risks of cardiovascular disease and death in patients with MetS were 1.58-2.0 times higher than those in people without MetS. MetS has emerged as a serious public health concern worldwide.
As a microbial-fermented tea, dark tea has a long-standing reputation against metabolic syndrome (anti-MetS). According to the ancient record of “Seeking Truth from Materia Medica”, dark tea has multiple pharmacological effects, including weight loss, lipid-lowering, and diabetic treatment. In recent decades, scientific studies have shown that dark tea is excellent in improving lipid profile, lowering body weight, alleviating chronic hyperglycemia, and attenuating hypertension. Rodents treated with green, oolong, black, and dark tea showed that dark tea was most effective at lowering lipid levels, body weight, and fasting hyperglycemia. A comparison of dark tea and raw tea leaves revealed that the anti-MetS effect was greatly biofortified after microbial fermentation. Considering that one of the most manageable approaches to combat MetS in humans is to prevent its development through dietary management, dark tea holds great potential for mitigating MetS.
Although the anti-MetS effect of dark tea is well recognized, its chemical basis and molecular mechanisms are ambiguous. There is increasing evidence that the anti-MetS effect of dark tea is highly associated with its regulation of gut microbiota, but the interaction between dark tea consumption, gut microbiota, and metabolic improvement is less thoroughly understood. This lecture deciphers the remarkable anti-MetS potential of dark tea, with special attention paid to its chemical basis and molecular mechanisms, and addresses the link between dark tea drinking, gut microbiota, and metabolic improvement.
