James May, one of the Top Gear/Grand Tour presenters has a discussion about tea vs coffee with his intern. She's coffee and James is tea. Black tea, some milk and sugar. Not even green tea or peppermint tea, just good old British tea.
I just got bad news (not really bad, but possibly bad). My kidney function went down (to 54 from 59), not up with the latest blood test. So, I'm still restricted to 2 cups of tea a day. She also wants me to increase my fluid intake. That might be tricky. Looking for a local consult to talk to a specialist about it. I don't feel any thing wrong and it's above the real danger point, just it's irritating to not be able to drink my normal stuff. I'm at stage 3a, see here for what that means At my age I should have GFR of 85 or there abouts, which is why my primary care person is not happy. I don't have any of the risk factors, ( diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or a family history of kidney failure.) so this sorta came out of the blue when it was reported last year. I was 3b then.
Today's taste test "tea" is Hibiscus. This herbal infusion was gifted to me by my brother, David, and sourced from Mecca Coffee Company , of Tulsa Oklahoma. As it contains no actual tea I'm not calling it "tea" for this review. Hibiscus originated in Africa and is still popular as a hot drink there, it is also popular in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America and the Caribbean. It's the primary flavoring agent in "Jamaica" drinks. Hibiscus has been found studies to lower blood pressure. Studies to see it effects on cholesterol were mixed and seem to have the same effect as black tea. Very high doses of hibiscus extract could potentially cause liver damage. The same review reported that hibiscus extract was shown to interact with hydrochlorothiazide (a diuretic) in animals and with acetaminophen in humans. According to other sources, hibiscus consumption is not safe for people who take chloroquine, the malaria...
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