Can a Simple Cup of Chamomile Make You Live Longer?

Can chamomile tea make you live longer? It seems that if you’re female it can! Sorry guys. . . .

This study included 3,050 Mexican-Americans who were sixty-five or older. Green tea has been shown to lower the risk of mortality, especially for women. This study selected Mexican-Americans, though, because the authors say that Mexican-Americans tend to drink more chamomile tea than actual tea. They wanted to see if chamomile tea could also lower the risk of mortality.

14% of the people in the study drank chamomile tea. And, it turned out that drinking chamomile tea did reduce the risk of mortality: drinking chamomile tea was associated with a 29% lower risk of mortality. When the researchers looked at gender, though, they found that men were not less likely to die during the study, and women were actually 33% less likely to die during the study.

So, this study suggests that, for women at least (sorry guys), chamomile might make you live longer.

Gerontologist 2015;doi:10.1093/geront/gnv051

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For more on chamomile, see our book Healthy Herbs: Your Everyday Guide to Medicinal Herbs and Their Use.