A study has shown that drinking coffee or tea or a combination of the two may be related to a lower risk for stroke and dementia.

Researchers from China's Tianjin Medical University studied 365,682 participants from the UK Biobank, aged 50 to 74. All the participants reported their coffee and tea intake habits. During an average follow-up of 11.4 years for new-onset disease, 5,079 participants developed dementia and 10,053 had at least one stroke.

According to the study published in PLOS Medicine, people who drank two to three cups of coffee or three to five cups of tea every day, or a combination of four to six cups of coffee and tea, had the lowest incidence of stroke or dementia.

Compared with those who drank neither coffee nor tea, people who drank two to three cups of coffee and two to three cups of tea daily had a 32 percent lower risk of stroke and a 28 percent lower risk of dementia.

Meanwhile, a lower risk of post-stroke dementia was associated with drinking coffee alone or in combination with tea, according to the study.

The researchers also evaluated the link of coffee types with stroke and dementia. Among ground coffee, instant coffee and decaffeinated coffee, they found that ground coffee drinkers were associated with a much lower risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

Coffee is a rich source of antioxidants and bioactive compounds while tea contains caffeine and catechin which have neuroprotective properties, such as anti-oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory effects.