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# Tea and coffee help fight superbug
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/tea_and_coffee_help_fight_superbug_0715110645/
- Published: 2011-07-15T07:48:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:46:06.000Z
- Description: Drawing on 2003-2004 NHANES data, Eric Matheson's team found adults who drank hot tea were 47% less likely to carry MRSA in the nose than non-drinkers, with a similar reduction among coffee drinkers. About 1.4% of the population carries MRSA in the nose.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Food, Nutrition, Coffee, Tea, MRSA, #vivvo-import

By David Liu, PH.D.

Drinking hot tea or coffee may help get rid of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA from the nose, a new study in the July-Aug 2011 issue of Annals of Family Medicine suggests.

The study led by Eric M. Matheson, MD, MS of Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina and colleagues found men and women who drank hot tea were 47 percent less likely to carry MRSA in the nose compared with those who did not reported drinking tea.

The same magnitude of reduction in the risk of carrying MRSA was found among those who drank coffee, compared to those who did not report drinking coffee.

The researchers knew that hot tea and coffee may be antibacterial. They studied data from participants in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to determine whether drinking tea and coffee would reduce the odds of carrying MRSA. 

MRSA does not respond to some powerful antibiotics indicated to treat staph infections and when it enters the body, it may cause an infection, which can be a danger to people with weakened immunity.

Dr. Matheson and colleagues reported that as many as 1.4 percent of the population carry MRSA in the nose.

In 2008, Y.S. Cho of Soonchunhyang University in the Republic of Korea and colleagues reported in Current Microbiology that green tea polyphenols when used with oxacillin exhibited synergistic antibacterial properties against MRSA.