Causal relationship between tea intake and chronic pain: A Mendelian randomization study

Objective: According to some studies, chronic pain imposes a significant burden on individuals and the economy, affecting more than 30% of the global population. However, the relationship between tea intake and chronic pain remains unclear. Methods: This study employed Mendelian randomization (MR) to detect the causal relationship between tea intake and chronic pain. The tea intake was obtained from the UK Biobank. The Multisite chronic pain (MCP) was used as the primary outcome, while chronic widespread pain (CWP) served as the secondary outcome. To assess heterogeneity, we applied Cochran's Q statistic with IVW methods. Additionally, the MR-Egger intercept test and MR-PRESSO test were performed to detect potential pleiotropy. Results: The results showed that tea intake increased the risk of MCP. Specifically, an increase in tea intake was associated with a higher risk of MCP (OR = 1.088, 95%CI = 1.038-1.141, P < 0.001). However, no causal relationship was found between tea intake and CWP (OR = 1.006, 95%CI = 0.999-1.014, P > 0.05). Furthermore, no reverse causality was observed. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that genetically predicted tea intake was a risk factor for chronic pain. These results may help shed light on the potential health impacts of tea take, providing further insights into its influence on chronic pain.