Abertay Tea for Cardiovascular Health During Menopause

Summary

The regular consumption of seaweed, as observed in Japan, is associated to a reduced cardiovascular risk and prolonged life expectancy. Interventional studies have shown that brown seaweed consumption can reduce blood pressure, improve glycaemic control and lipoprotein profiles, although this varies with population, dose, duration and the type of seaweed. Brown seaweed appears the most promising to improve cardiovascular risk, due to the presence of specific antioxidants (polyphenols called phlorotannins), pigments (fucoxanthin) and fibre (alginate, fucoidan).

Women see their cardiovascular risk greatly increased when they reach menopause, and seaweed consumption may provide benefits for this population. In the UK, 98% of UK residents drink tea daily (Source UKTIA), with English breakfast tea being the most popular. Providing a tea enriched with beneficial compounds has the potential to improve cardiovascular health in a wide range of the population, including postmenopausal women. Abertay university (Dundee, UK) has recently developed an English Breakfast tea enriched with fermented seaweed, which was found to taste like English breakfast tea. We hypothesise that the consumption of 3 cups a day of the Abertay-developed Tea (AberTea) for 8 weeks, with each tea bag containing 1g of fermented seaweed, will improve vascular function and cardiovascular risk factors in postmenopausal women.

Conditions

• Cardiovascular Risk Factor
• Vascular Function

Interventions

OTHER

Nutritional intervention with Fermented Seaweed Enriched English Breakfast Tea

Participants will consume 3 cups of tea per day - spread out during the day, for 8 weeks. For each cup, they will be asked to briefly stir one tea bag (3g tea + 1 g fermented seaweed) into 250mL boiling water and let it brew for 3minutes, before removing the tea bag without squeezing it.

OTHER

Nutritional intervention with Control English Breakfast Tea

Participants will consume 3 cups of tea per day - spread out during the day, for 8 weeks. For each cup, they will be asked to briefly stir one tea bag (3g tea) into 250mL boiling water and let it brew for 3minutes, before removing the tea bag without squeezing it.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Oshun Labs Ltd

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• UK Research and Innovation

  collaborator OTHER

• Abertay University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sarah C Cottin, PhD · Abertay University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

45 Years

Max Age

74 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-06-16

Primary Completion

2025-10-31

Completion

2025-11-30

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations