The Benefits of Green Tea
by Staff EditorGreen tea is the antivirus, anticancer super antioxidant. It is the most popular of Asian drinks and has been known for centuries to have a long list of health benefits. Interestingly, after water, it is the most widely consumed beverage on the earth.
Dr. Earl Mindell states, "the antioxidants specific to green tea are polyphenols, bioflavonoids that act as super antioxidants by neutralizing harmful fats and oils, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, blocking cancer-triggering mechanisms, inhibiting bacteria and viruses, improving digestion, and protecting against ulcers and strokes. The specific type of polyphenol found in green tea is called a catechin."
This catechin is similar to the substance found in grape seed extract that is the primary component of the proanthocyanadin molecule. The active polyphenols in green tea are the EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate).
Other ingredients in green tea include the green chlorophyll molecules, but also important are the proanthocyanadins similar to those found in grape seed extract, pine bark, bilberry, and gingko. The specific tea is a variety called Camellia sinensis. Camellia sinensis in the West is known as black tea, such as Earl Grey tea, orange pekoe tea, or English breakfast tea.
What Are Some of Green Tea's Benefits?
Green tea inhibits cancer. Green tea protects the brain and liver. In one study, it was found to be two hundred times more protective against oxidation in the brain than vitamin E. Green tea is anti-bacterial. Green tea cures gum disease.
Green Tea Extract
Since green tea contains a significant amount of caffeine, and since ten to twenty cups a day would be necessary to take complete advantage of green tea's protective properties, a green tea extract in capsular form would be the preferred method of use. Dr. Mindell recommends two capsules of 30 percent polyphenol green tea extract daily with meals to control specific disease(s).
How Green Tea Can Help You:
Dr. Earl Mindell in his Super Antioxidant Miracle book describes ways in which green tea could help you. These ways include protective safeguards against possible breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, intestinal cancer, skin cancer, and stomach cancer. "Further," he states, "it prevents oxidation reactions in the brain, acts as an antibacterial against harmful digestive bacteria, it cures gum disease, it lowers oxidized LDL cholesterol and raises HDL cholesterol, it lowers triglycerides, inhibits viruses such as HIV, hepatitis, and herpes viruses, and acts as an antioxidant protectant against damage to blood vessels."
The History of Green Tea
Legend has it that tea was first consumed as a beverage in 2737 B.C.E. when Emperor Shen Nung of the Tang Dynasty was watching a pot of boiling water and leaves from a nearby tree fell into the water. The aroma was so pleasant and enticing that he tasted it and never drank plain water again. About 800 C.E., Japanese priests studying in China learned of the drink and its medicinal properties from Buddhist monks and brought the practice back to their homeland. In the early 1200s, a book was written in Japan about tea drinking as a way to maintain health. It was not until 1609 that tea came to the West and found popularity in France, Holland, and Germany.
Where Does Tea Come From?
All tea comes from a single plant whose scientific name is Camellia sinensis, but this species has hundreds of variations dependent on geography, altitude, and soil conditions. The leaves may be picked at different stages, and there are also different ways of preparing the leaves. For our purposes, the difference between green teas and black teas is that black tea is allowed to ferment and is then fired to dry it out, whereas green tea is pan-fired before it has a chance to ferment. The fermentation process oxidizes some of the important bioflavonoids that give green tea its legendary ability to promote health and turns the leaves brown. The fresh, unoxidized green tea is the tea highest in antioxidants for this reason.
The Secret of Green Tea
The secret of green tea is the combination of flayonoids and polyphenols that it contains. There are three catechins that are especially noted for their effects. They are typically referred to as EC (epicatechin), EGC (epigallocatechini, and ECGC (epigallocatechin-3-gallate). Do not be overly concerned with all of these scientific terms. I include this type of detailed information for those of you wanting more in-depth knowledge. For most of us, the most important information to take from this section is that green tea contains numerous bioflavonoids (tlayonoids. polyphenols, catechins), vitamins, and minerals that all work together synergistically when green tea is introduced into our bodies. In these subsequent paragraphs, I will be referring to green tea as a whole package, not just the individual parts.
Myriad Benefits Are Claimed
All kinds of benefits are claimed for tea, not the least of which is the simple fact that drinking a lot of tea keeps your urinary tract working. It also contains just enough caffeine to keep you stimulated (but not too high), lowers blood pressure by counteracting certain enzymes, lowers blood sugar, fights viruses and food poisoning, soothes digestion, and prevents cavities. That last one may be hard to swallow, but it was verified in December 1997 by some Japanese doctors who found out that if you just swirl green tea in your mouth, the chemicals stay in your saliva for up to an hour. Besides all that, it just feels good to hold a warm mug in your hands.
The Antioxidant properties of Green Tea
The antioxidant properties of green tea are responsible for its most important benefits. The Chinese always claimed that tea slows aging, but it was not until we understood the role of oxidation in aging and the antioxidant function of flavonoids that we knew how this mechanism might work. In trying out a new computerized system for measuring chemicals, researchers at University of California-Berkeley found that green tea extract was the best at scavenging the deadly hydroxyl radicals. It was followed by grape seed extract, Pycnogenol, ginkgo biloba, and other commercial flavonoid blends. The three diseases that we will focus on regarding green tea are heart disease, AIDS, and cancer.
Heart Disease and the Benefits of Green Tea
Green tea, as we mentioned, lowers blood pressure. In the experiment that confirmed this, two groups of rats were used, and no matter which group got the tea extract, their blood pressure went down. In addition, the antioxidant effect of green tea stopped the oxidation of the "bad" LDL cholesterol and reduced lesions (wound or injury) in the aorta where oxidized cholesterol had started to plant itself. Neither vitamin E nor beta-carotene were as successful in that task. A few studies did not agree with this statement, but in the studies that confirm its antioxidant and cholesterol-lowering potential, there are key phrases like "there were no differences until week 11 ..." and "women who drank 10 cups a day ... " It is possible that results were not found because dosage was too low or not enough time was given. In one recent paper, the results are not in question:
Chinese green tea and Jasmine tea, both with a minimum degree of fermentation, were found to have significant serum and liver cholesterol lowering effects. They also reduced the increase in liver weight due to lipid deposition. All tea treatments lowered the atherogenic index and increased the HDL-total cholesterol ratio, while LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels were not significantly affected. That pretty much covers it all. The good cholesterol increased and the bad cholesterol did not do any bad things.
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) and the Benefits of Green Tea
The idea that green tea could be used in treating AIDS is still in its infancy, but there are several indications that make it worth pursuing. First, green tea is known to inhibit viruses. Tobacco farmers use it to protect their crops from the tobacco mosaic virus. It is also known to directly attack the influenza virus. In 1990, green tea catechins were found to inhibit the activity of the AIDS virus in a laboratory petri dish. More recently, Medical Hypotheses published an article in March 1997 suggesting that several natural nutritional factors can prolong the effects of the new AIDS drug treatments. Those factors were selenium, a low-fat diet, green tea, and phytochemicals from cruciferous vegetables like turnips, cabbage, radishes, and horseradish. Also, if one of the key factors in controlling the progress of AIDS is controlling overall oxidative stress, then adding the antioxidant activity of green tea consumption should relieve much of that burden, keeping the disease in check.
Cancer and the Benefits of Green Tea
Most of the current research into green tea has focused on its cancer-fighting ability. As with other antioxidants, there is evidence to show that it stops the mutations in DNA that start cancer by scavenging the carcinogenic hydroxyl radicals and preventing damaging lesions where cancer likes to start. Tea catechins both reduce enzyme activity that can create free radicals and directly scavenge those particles. Like Pycnogenol, green tea also deals with the dangerous free radical nitric oxide and the enzymes that create it. There has been a surprising turn of events discovered in the last few months. In addition to these methods for combating cancer, green tea offers a new weapon: it tells mutant (cancer) cells to die!
Three studies published from November 1997 to March 1998 have independently cited evidence that green tea disrupts DNA replication and prevents the cancer cell from reproducing. The first was at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, the second at Mie University in Japan, and the third at M. D. Anderson Cancer Research Center in Houston. The Case Western study saw something very unusual. The green tea catechins patched up the oxidative damage to the cell wall to keep the cancer cell from leaking and contaminating the cells around it, but some of the oxidative damage inside the cell was left untouched so that the cell would die quicker. Once that cancer cell died, it could be replaced by a healthy cell. This is a different approach, but one that is very effective. By forcing cancer cells to die early and stopping them from reproducing, the cancer cannot spread or grow and new tissue can grow in its place. The scientists call this stimulating cell "apoptosis" (programmed cell death).
Green tea has been associated with preventing several different kinds of cancer, including lung, breast, and stomach. That has now expanded to all of the digestive system cancers like those of the esophagus and colon. Since digestive cancers are responsible for one third of all the cancer deaths in the United States, green tea as a preventive measure could make a difference to thousands of people.
Lately, there have been several studies showing that tea catechins also help to prevent pancreatic cancer. In one case, the number of pancreatic cancers was cut in half in the group that received tea extract. Another study related this to specific antioxidant protection offered by tea catechins.
Green tea has also been shown to be effective in preventing cancer-causing UV (ultraviolet) radiation from mutating the DNA of skin cells. This is a concern because sunscreens do a great job of preventing sunburn, but do very little to block the frequencies of radiation that cause cancer, according to the Lovelace Institutes in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Liver cancer was also affected by green tea in a study at Temple University. One of the more promising findings said that "IGCG [remember that stuff?] inhibited proliferation of AML [acute myeloblastic leukemia] cells in all cases examined" [emphasis added]. It is almost impossible to find anything in medical researd1 that works in all cases, so green tea holds great promise as a treatment for leukemia.
You may have noticed the phrase "tea catechins" used over and over again. What about all of the other components found in the tea? Some scientists in Osaka wondered the same thing, so they found out that the other chemicals are responsible for suppressing gene expression, inhibited the enzyme ornithine decarboxylase, and stopped skin cancers from starting. Don't worry about the specifics in what all of those terms mean. Simply know and understand that all of that other "stuff" in green tea fights cancer in various ways as well. In fact, they found that these other polyphenols work in both the initiation phase and the promotion phase of cancer development, although there were several studies that indicated that the catechins were only effective in the promotion phase. Please translate this into English? Gladly. Research studies appear to indicate that whole green tea is more effective as a preventative measure to disease(s) than some or green tea's individual components (for example, catechins) if working alone. Suggestion? Drink green tea (or supplement with green tea extract) and take advantage of all of its benefits.
Making the Decision to Drink Green Tea and/or Supplement Your Diet
If you really want to start supplementing with green tea, you should be aware that most of the successful experiments have a dosage equivalent to ten cups of tea a day. That is not impossible to do, but it takes a serious commitment to do it and a lot of trips to the bathroom. Pure extracts of green tea are readily available. Which can significantly cut down the amount you have to drink. Also this is a long-term lifestyle decision. The results are not seen Overnight, even by the researchers who are looking for specific chemical changes. It may take three months before you really see the benefits in terms of changes in disease status. What you will find right away is that you are getting about half as much caffeine as you get from coffee, your digestion will improve, and you will feel refreshed.
