Tea Health Benefits: 8 Ways It Could Benefit Our Bodies

A cup of tea anyone?

It could do wonders for your health.

Research has shown that the ancient elixir -- first drank thousands of years ago -- could do more than warm our bodies. The antioxidant polyphenols in tea , called catechins, have been linked with anti-cancer activity, and certain teas -- like green tea -- are also known to have heart benefits, according to the Mayo Clinic.

A lot of research has focused on green tea in particular, Health.com reported, because it contains an exceptionally high number of catechins.

However, it's important to note that much more research is needed before it can be said that drinking tea can cure you of any disease. "There are pearls of real promise here, but they have yet to be strung," Dr. David Katz, a HuffPost blogger and director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center, told Health.com. "We don't have clinical trials in human patients showing that adding tea to one's routine changes health outcomes for the better."

But there is some evidence of the potential ways tea can improve health. And not only have scientists been honing in on how it affects our bodies when we drink it, they have also been finding it may have uses in medicines to fight certain diseases, like cancer. Click through the slideshow for some ways the tea-health link is being studied: