Teatime for teeth

Tea might keep your teeth healthy, researchers report this week. A preliminary study led by Dr. Milton Schiffenbauer of Pace University in New York implies that "ifyou drink tea, there's a good chance that the tea will inactivate viruses in your oral cavityon direct contact."​ he claimed. His findings were presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. Schiffenbauer and his co-researchers tested the activity of several regular and iced green or black teas from manufacturers such as Nestea, Snapple, Arizona and Bigelow on animal tissues infected with viruses. The viruses included herpes simplex 1 and 2 and the virus T1, which infects the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterium. In the case of herpes virus, "iced tea or regular tea does destroy or inactivate the virus within a few minutes,"​ Schiffenbauer said in an interview with Reuters Health. Similar results were found with the T1 virus. The mechanism by which a compound or compounds in tea might interfere with viralsurvival remains unclear. "With the bacterial (T1) viruses, I would think it may affect the binding of the viruses to the cell,"​ the Pace researcher said. "With the herpes virus, I am not really sure. It may affect binding or also it's been found that sometimes tea willinterrupt the cell's reproduction processes, which may affect the virus."​ Whatever the mechanism, the researchers found that very little tea was needed to wipe out viruses. "With the herpes virus they diluted the tea by a hundred times."​ Black tea appeared to have a more potent antiviral effect than did green tea, headded. The researchers, who received no funding from private industry, plan further study in animals to help confirm the results of these early findings. Source: ReutersHealth​