Tea is good. Tea is good for you. Some shrewd tea merchants tend to exaggerate the latter point in the service of selling more tea, but there’s strong evidence even so to indicate that tea has numerous health benefits. We’ve reported on a number of these potential benefits thus far. Here are a few more bits and pieces of tea-related health info that didn’t merit a full-length discussion.

Green Tea Whips Superbugs
The list of potential health benefits we might realize from drinking green tea is a long one, for sure. In 2008, a group of Egyptian scientists added another point to the list. They announced the results of a study that suggested that green tea fights drug-resistant superbugs. Researchers said that whenever green tea was tested in combination with antibiotics it “enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics.”

Green Tea Facial
Apparently you don’t have to drink green tea to benefit from its health-giving qualities, although that’s the preferred method for most of us. In 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported on Lina Tanaka, the co-founder of Tokyo-based skin-care company Medical Research International. Tanaka swears by the restorative properties of the polyphenols in green tea, which she applies directly to her face, skin and eyes.

Einstein’s Tea Leaves
Quick – what’s the connection between Albert Einstein and tea? And what’s it all got to do with health? Well, it’s not a health benefit in the strictest sense of the word, but a phenomenon Einstein first looked at nearly a hundred years ago – the tendency of tea leaves “to accumulate at the center of the bottom in a stirred teacup” – has been useful to Australian scientists devising a new method to separate blood plasma.

Too Much Tea?
Is it possible to drink too much tea? Hardcore tea drinkers might find it difficult to even consider such a question, but moderation is probably a good in all areas of life – including tea consumption. A Chicago Tribune article published some time back pointed to some potential drawbacks in drinking too much tea. Among them, fluid overload, caffeine sensitivity and anemia – the latter a result of tea binding with iron. For other viewpoints on this notion, check out this thread from some of the avid tea drinkers at the TeaChat forum.