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People Flock to Saudi Arabia's First Int'l Tea Exhibition

People flock to Saudi Arabia's first tea exhibition. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
People flock to Saudi Arabia's first tea exhibition. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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People Flock to Saudi Arabia's First Int'l Tea Exhibition

People flock to Saudi Arabia's first tea exhibition. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
People flock to Saudi Arabia's first tea exhibition. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Tea is one of the most consumed drinks globally after water, and it is one of the essential traditional drinks in many countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Saudis consider tea a part of their long-standing heritage after it was introduced into the Kingdom nearly a hundred years ago.

Alongside Saudi coffee, tea is a staple at all social occasions.

Saudis’ love for tea was reflected in the tremendous public turnout at the International Tea Colors, which coincides with International Tea Day.

The event was the first hosted by Saudi Arabia that celebrated tea and its baked goods.

The organizers were keen to ensure there were adequate spaces within the halls of the Riyadh International Fair to display the brands and tea products to the public.

Several events will be held on the sidelines of the exhibition, including a tasting and evaluation platform competing for the best dish of sweet and savory snacks accompanying tea.

Shivanka, a Sri Lankan who is an avid tea drinker, specializes in experimenting with tea crops of all kinds and determining their quality.

He said he has been working in this profession for nearly 20 years.

He drinks about 800 cups of tea a day to get used to its taste and distinguish between the different types to determine the best quality.

Shivanka has been working in Saudi Arabia with a company specializing in tea for nearly 15 years. He indicated that Saudis have a distinct palate in tea, so he works hard to ensure that his evaluation is accurate to provide the best possible quality.

Hamad al-Enzi stated that he has enjoyed drinking tea daily for nearly 30 years.

Enzi, touring the exhibition, said that he drinks tea daily and wanted to attend the show and learn more about tea and its types and production details.

He also wanted to learn about the different companies in Saudi Arabia that produce tea.

According to World Bank, Saudis consume eight billion cups of tea annually, and the per capita consumption of tea in the Kingdom in 2020 ranked first in the Arab world with 1.2 kilograms, exceeding consumption per capita globally by 0.2 kilograms.

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Blood Tests Allow 30-year Estimates of Women's Cardio Risks, New Study Says

A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Blood Tests Allow 30-year Estimates of Women's Cardio Risks, New Study Says

A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Women’s heart disease risks and their need to start taking preventive medications should be evaluated when they are in their 30s rather than well after menopause as is now the practice, said researchers who published a study on Saturday.

Presenting the findings at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in London, they said the study showed for the first time that simple blood tests make it possible to estimate a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease over the next three decades.

"This is good for patients first and foremost, but it is also important information for (manufacturers of) cholesterol lowering drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, and lipoprotein(a)lowering drugs - the implications for therapy are broad," said study leader Dr. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Reuters reported.

Current guidelines “suggest to physicians that women should generally not be considered for preventive therapies until their 60s and 70s. These new data... clearly demonstrate that our guidelines need to change,” Ridker said. “We must move beyond discussions of 5 or 10 year risk."

The 27,939 participants in the long-term Women’s Health Initiative study had blood tests between 1992 and 1995 for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C or “bad cholesterol”), which are already a part of routine care.

They also had tests for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) - a marker of blood vessel inflammation - and lipoprotein(a), a genetically determined type of fat.

Compared to risks in women with the lowest levels of each marker, risks for major cardiovascular events like heart attacks or strokes over the next 30 years were 36% higher in women with the highest levels of LDL-C, 70% higher in women with the highest levels of hsCRP, and 33% higher in those with the highest levels of lipoprotein(a).

Women in whom all three markers were in the highest range were 2.6 times more likely to have a major cardiovascular event and 3.7 times more likely to have a stroke over the next three decades, according to a report of the study in The New England Journal of Medicine published to coincide with the presentation at the meeting.

“The three biomarkers are fully independent of each other and tell us about different biologic issues each individual woman faces,” Ridker said.

“The therapies we might use in response to an elevation in each biomarker are markedly different, and physicians can now specifically target the individual person’s biologic problem.”

While drugs that lower LDL-C and hsCRP are widely available - including statins and certain pills for high blood pressure and heart failure - drugs that reduce lipoprotein(a) levels are still in development by companies, including Novartis , Amgen , Eli Lilly and London-based Silence Therapeutics.

In some cases, lifestyle changes such as exercising and quitting smoking can be helpful.

Most of the women in the study were white Americans, but the findings would likely “have even greater impact among Black and Hispanic women for whom there is even a higher prevalence of undetected and untreated inflammation,” Ridker said.

“This is a global problem,” he added. “We need universal screening for hsCRP ... and for lipoprotein(a), just as we already have universal screening for cholesterol.”