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Lab Mice With Alzheimer's Benefit From Tea
A study conducted at the University of South Florida discovered that the component, called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), helped decrease production of the Alzheimer's-related protein which can accumulate and lead to nerve damage and memory loss.
Researchers injected Alzheimer's mice for several months with injections of pure EGCG. They observed drastic decrease, as much as 54 percent of Alzheimer's plaques.
"The findings suggest that a concentrated component of green tea can decrease brain beta-amyloid plaque formation," said senior study author Jun Tan, PhD, MD, director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory at the Silver Child Development Center, USF Department of Psychiatry.
http://health.usf.edu/publicaffairs/newsreleases/News+Release+09+26+05+green+tea.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/an01211
Green Tea Shows Promise for Smoking-related Lesions
Monday, 02 February 2009
A study published last month in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism suggested that liquid green tea extract may be able to lessen the harmful effects and disease-related lesions caused by a carcinogen linked to tobacco.
According to an abstract, researchers set out to study the effects, if any, that green tea and/or licorice aqueous extracts would have on the thyroid function of male albino rats intoxicated with Dimethylnitrosamine, a carcinogenic compound that occurs especially in tobacco smoke.
The team split 40 rats into several groups to control the administration of green tea, licorice, and a combination of both substances, then measured results over a period of four weeks.
The results indicated that "aqueous extract of green tea may be effective in amelioration of biochemical effects and histopathological lesions induced by DMN," stated the abstract.
Full article at:http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/6/1/2
Histopathological and biochemical effects of green tea and/or licorice aqueous extracts on thyroid functions in male albino rats intoxicated with dimethylnitrosamine
Faculty of Science, Biochemistry Subdivision, Beni Sweif Branch, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Department of Physiology, Beni Sweif Branch, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Nutrition & Metabolism 2009, 6:2doi:10.1186/1743-7075-6-2
| Published: | 12 January 2009 |
Study: Workout Plus Green Tea Equals Leaner Abdomen
Wednesday, 04 February 2009
A team of researchers from American and Japanese institutions recently found that consuming the catechin in green tea "enhances exercise-induced changes in abdominal fat," according to an abstract of the study, published in the Journal of Nutrition.
The team set out to determine whether green tea catechin would have an influence on body composition and fat distribution in overweight and obese adults who were on an exercise program to lose weight.
Kevin Maki, PhD, president of Provident Clinical Research & Consulting, led the study. He told WTN that the group of 107 participants who completed the study was roughly half men and half women with an average age of 48 years. Their average body mass index (a measure of weight divided by height) was 32.2 (25-29.9 is considered overweight, Maki explained).
Researchers divided participants into two groups and gave one of them regular doses of green tea catechin over a 12-week period. During that time, the participants also were on a regular exercise regime consisting of 180 minutes of moderate intensity exercise and at last three supervised exercise sessions per week.
Maki said subjects in both groups lost weight and body fat. "The subjects in the catechin group tended to lose more weight and body fat, but these differences were not statistically significant," he added. "Subjects in the catechin group did lose more abdominal fat, suggesting the catechins may have promoted preferential loss of abdominal fat."
When asked whether he had any theories to explain the outcome of the study, Maki said factors that control where body fat is deposited are "poorly understood" and emphasized that much more work needs to be done to understand exactly why catechins had the effect on abdominal fat that they did.
However, he added: "One potentially important factor may be the sympathetic nervous system, which influences various functions like heart rate and blood pressure. Catechins seem to have an effect that mimics activation of the sympathetic nervous system. As a result, they may increase resting metabolic rate and influence the rate at which fat is released from fat cells in different locations."
Maki, Kevin C., Reeves, Matthew S., Farmer, Mildred, Yasunaga, Koichi, Matsuo, Noboru, Katsuragi, Yoshihisa, Komikado, Masanori, Tokimitsu, Ichiro, Wilder, Donna, Jones, Franz, Blumberg, Jeffrey B., Cartwright, Yolanda
Green Tea Catechin Consumption Enhances Exercise-Induced Abdominal Fat Loss in Overweight and Obese Adults
J. Nutr. 2009 139: 264-270
Study Says Green Tea and Bortezomib Don't Mix
Friday, 06 February 2009
The American Society of Hematology this week released the results of a study that – to the surprise of the researchers conducting it – demonstrated that green tea extract can inhibit the effectiveness of a certain type of anticancer drug, bortezomib (sold under the name Velcade).
Through both in vitro and in vivo mouse experiments, the researchers studied the interaction of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG, the antioxidant polyphenol in green tea) and bortezomib, an anticancer therapy approved for treatment of multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma.
The drug normally causes tumors to die by inhibiting proteasomes. But during experimentation, the team found that EGCG blocked bortezomib's ability to inhibit proteasomes, rendering it ineffective and leaving the tumors intact.
Tea boosters pointed out that the study only concerned one particular cancer drug; not all of them.
In a statement, the Tea Association of the USA noted, "This data has no bearing whatsoever on evidence pointing to the healthy benefits of tea, including green tea, relating to lowering risk of developing diseases, such as cancer and heart disease."
Dr. Carol Greenwood, professor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and scientific advisor to the Tea Association of Canada, added: "The scientists were asking a very different question: Can eating certain foods influence the effect of medications used during chemotherapy in those who have already developed cancers? This would be no different than asking whether a drug should be taken with or between meals or whether certain types of foods (e.g. grapefruit juice or dairy products) should be avoided when a drug is being used."
In fact, Schonthal himself said, "Although the study has exposed detrimental effects of green tea in specific combination with Velcade, this should not minimize the previously reported potentially beneficial effect of this herb. Related studies with other types of cancer therapies are promising, and green tea extract may actually improve the anticancer effects of other drugs."
His recommendation also stressed a specific type of green tea: "The current evidence is sufficient enough to strongly urge patients undergoing bortezomib therapy to abstain from consuming green tea products, in particular the widely available, highly concentrated green tea and EGCG products that are sold in liquid of capsule form."
The results of the study were published online in Blood, the hematology association's official journal.
Encouse B. Golden, Philip Y. Lam, Adel Kardosh, Kevin J. Gaffney, Enrique Cadenas, Stan G. Louie, Nicos A. Petasis, Thomas C. Chen, and Axel H. Schonthal
Blood First Edition Paper, prepublished online February 3, 2009; DOI 10.1182/blood-2008-07-171389
Blood, 3 February 2009, Vol. 0, No. 2009, pp. 200807171.
Tea and Weight Loss- The Best Diet Drink Ever!
Remember all those diet-oriented milkshakes you used to drink before meals to help you lose weight? Do you drink diet pop to cut your calories and fight the fat?
Losing weight may be a lot simpler and a lot easier that consuming all those expensive diet drinks. What you really need to be drinking is more tea.
A study done at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Maryland concluded that men who drank oolong tea burned more calories than men who didn't. In fact, men who drank five cups of tea per day burned 80 more calories than non-tea drinkers. While the study was a small one, the results have been the same in multiple research venues.
A similar study performed in Switzerland in 1999 found that six out of 10 men take capsules of green tea extract burned, on the average, 80 calories per day more than those who weren't taking the substance. Another study performed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture found that men who drank five cups of tea per day burned an extra 67 calories per day. Even more significant than the 80-calorie-per-day figure is the long-term effect of tea drinking on weight and general health.
For more than a decade, Taiwanese researchers followed 1,100 people determining that people who drank black, green, or oolong tea one or more times per week had less body fat than those who didn't drink tea. And it wasn't just a little less fat, either. It was 20% less body fat!
One American doctor, a retired pathology professor and author of four classic medical textbooks, Dr. Liang-Chi Tao, has found that tea-drinking enabled him to lose weight without dieting. The only change he made to his lifestyle was that instead of drinking his usual beverages, he drank tea. In fact, he fixed a ten cup container of tea every morning and simply imbibed whenever he would normally drink beer, soft drinks, or water. He lost ten pounds in six weeks by simply drinking tea and following a mild exercise regiment of walking each day.
How can a simple drink made mostly of water and natural leaves promote such weight loss? By increasing thermogenesis, the process your body uses to burn calories. Scientists believe that the caffeine and polyphenol in tea work to decrease fat absorption and intestinal glucose and speed up metabolism.
Similar weight loss results are seen in people who take tea-extract tablets. One study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicated that men who took green-tea extract burned 550 more calories per week than men who didn't take the pill.
But isn't drinking a nice, smooth cup of tea more fun than swallowing a capsule?
Isn't that cold glass of tea more appealing than a diet? Your weight-losing-skinny-future is spelled out in tea-leaves. All you have to do is drink it!
CITATIONS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
"As I Lay Dieting." Men's Health. Jul/Aug. 2002, p. 152. [Ebsco Host].
Dailey, Kate. "Weight-Loss Bulletin." Men's Health. Mar. 2004, p. 48. [Ebsco Host].
"Green Tea for Weight Loss?" Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, June 2003, p. 3. [Ebsco Host].
Kreiter, Ted. "A Brisk Tea Diet." Saturday Evening Post. Jan//Feb. 2003, p. 22. [Ebsco Host].
"Say Oolong to Extra Pounds." Prevention. Sep. 2002., p. 78. [Ebsco Host].
Green Tea Antioxidant Study Yields Diabetes Surprise
| Monday, 27 October 2008 | |
 A team of researchers from American, Japanese and Chinese universities set out to study the effect of green tea's antioxidant on Sjogren's syndrome, and ended up learning something about its effect on diabetes as well. The study, whose results were published Oct. 24, 2008 in Life Sciences journal, examined the effects that orally consuming epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) would have on patients with Sjogren's syndrome, which causes damage to moisture-producing glands such as tear ducts and salivary glands. EGCG is the polyphenol found in green tea. The researchers gave it to non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice in order to test its anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory and autoantigen-inhibitory properties. Among the key findings reported in the article abstract, were that diabetic mice fed plain water had significantly higher levels of antigens than diabetic mice fed EGCG. The results suggest that the green tea polyphenol could delay the onset of autoimmune diseases like Sjogren's syndrome and diabetes. "These results indicate that EGCG protects the NOD mouse submandibular glands from autoimmune-induced inflammation, and reduces serum autoantibody levels," the abstract stated. "The evidence suggests that EGCG could be useful in delaying or managing SS-like autoimmune disorders." |
Drinking Tea for Health and Life
Would you like to decrease your chance of getting prostate cancer? How about reducing your risk of ovarian cancer? If there's a chance you could reduce risks of heart disease, would you take it? How about lowering your cholesterol and boosting your immune system?
All you have to do is drink tea.
Research studies done all over the world suggests that drinking tea, either black or green, can produce amazing results with regard to health and well-being. Maximum health benefits come from drinking four to five cups of tea per day, a healthy consumption of the liquid that supplies the body with up to 36% of our antioxidant intake. Antioxidants are responsible for the production of a phytochemical called EGCG. This chemical neutralizes "free radical" oxygen molecules and repairs damages to cells.
The prevention of cancer seems like a huge claim, but more and more research pours in attesting to just such a benefit of tea-drinking. The risks of prostate cancer and ovarian cancer have been found to be lowered by the consumption of tea. The Journal of Cancer Research found that drinking green tea inhibits both the growth of blood vessels that feed the tumors as well as the tumors themselves.
A University of Wisconsin study related that green and white teas may kill precancerous cells through their ability to stimulate the liver and detoxify carcinogens. Australia's Curtin University looked at the tea-drinking habits of Chinese men and Australian men and determined men who regularly drank green tea reduced their risk of prostate cancer by two-thirds.
But the benefits of tea-drinking are not confined to cancer prevention. Tea-drinkers also have healthier hearts. The University of Wisconsin study connected tea drinking to a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, and osteoporosis.
A similar study was the Zutphen elderly Study, performed in the Netherlands in 1993 which found that elderly men had a 68% reduction in cardiovascular illness if they drank black tea. Another finding discovered by U. S. Department of Agriculture research suggested that five servings of black tea per day can reduce "bad" cholesterol by as much as 11.1% and total cholesterol by 6.5% in people with mildly elevated cholesterol readings.
Amazingly, drinking even one cup of tea per day resulted in a 44% reduction in heart attacks, a finding contributed by Brigham Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston after studying 340 men and women who had suffered heart attacks.
The consumption of tea has also been linked to weight loss, improvement of oral health, lowering of high blood pressure and improved alertness and mental health.
If you value your health, it's not a bad thing to be called a tea-totaler!
CITATIONS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
"Green Tea Reduces Risks of Prostate Cancer." The Times. (United Kingdom). December 3, 2004. [Ebsco Host].
Hope, Jenny. "The Cup that Cheers the Heart." Daily Mail. Jan. 20, 2005, p. 5. [Ebsco Host].
Platzman, Andrea. "Reading the Tea Leaves: Is Good Health in Your Future?" Environmental Nutrition. Nov. 2004. pp. 1+. [Ebsco Host].
Rawle, Alison. "Morning Cuppa Good Medicine." The Australian. Jan. 17, 2004, p. C19. [Ebsco Host].
Rhodes Phillip. "Nutrition Bulletin." Men's Health. Nov. 2004, p. [Ebsco Host].
Green Tea Health Benefits
Green tea is tea made from adult tea leaves that have not been oxidized. These tea leaves bring to the tea many antioxidants and vitamins, along with minerals and volatile oils. Green tea also has many health benefits; however, some are also controversial because scientific evidence only supports the possibilities of them instead of proving them.There are many, many different health benefits that vary, depending upon the type of tea you are drinking, however, we will attempt to focus on green tea here, though some of the help benefits that are going to be talked about can also be found in other types of tea. The first example of a controversial health benefit of green tea is this, some people claim that green tea helps to prevent or even treat; cancer. However, some scientists argue that there is no scientific evidence to prove this. Green tea also contains antioxidants which help the body’s immune system to fight off infections and illnesses. Though green tea is said to help arthritis, many different types of cancer, allergies, illnesses, and many others, quite a few are controversial and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) argues some of these listed and more that are not listed.
Yet at the same time, there are surveys of people who do and don’t drink green tea. The surveys show the difference in the number of those people who do and don’t get cancer, the flu, and other illnesses or viruses/diseases.
In my personal opinion however, I believe that green tea does help allergies, for when I wake up in the morning with a stuffy nose or clogged sinuses as my mom calls it while I’m stumbling around trying to figure out where I am, sniffing in the steaming aroma of the fresh tea and then drinking it seems to almost if not, immediately clear my sinuses/nose. I can’t say much about any of the other benefits of green tea for I have not had the chance to test them, though this in itself may be due to the fact that I drink around three to four cups of green tea a day.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea Modified 07:54, 7 November 2006
http://www.pyroenergen.com/articles/green-tea-heart-attack.htm Junji Takano
Black tea 'soothes away stress'
The study of black tea - instead of green or herbal varieties - found it helps cut levels of the stress hormone cortisol circulating in the blood.
They found people who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a tea substitute.
The University College London study is in the journal Psychopharmacology.
In the study, 75 young male regular tea drinkers were split into two groups and monitored for six weeks.
They all gave up their normal tea, coffee and caffeinated beverages, and then one group was given a fruit-flavoured caffeinated tea mixture made up of the constituents of an average cup of black tea.
The other group was given a caffeinated placebo identical in taste, but devoid of the active tea ingredients.
Stressful tasks
All drinks were tea-coloured, but were designed to mask some of the normal sensory cues associated with tea drinking (such as smell, taste and familiarity of the brew).
This was designed to eliminate confounding factors such as the 'comforting' effect of drinking a cup of tea.
Both groups were subjected to challenging tasks, while their cortisol, blood pressure, blood platelet and self-rated levels of stress were measured.
In one task, volunteers were exposed to one of three stressful situations (threat of unemployment, a shop-lifting accusation or an incident in a nursing home), where they had to prepare a verbal response and argue their case in front of a camera.
The tasks triggered substantial increases in blood pressure, heart rate and subjective stress ratings in both of the groups.
However, 50 minutes after the task, cortisol levels had dropped by an average of 47% in the tea-drinking group compared with 27% in the fake tea group.
Blood platelet activation - linked to blood clotting and the risk of heart attacks - was also lower in the tea drinkers.
In addition, this group reported a greater degree of relaxation in the recovery period after the task.
Complex drink
Researcher Professor Andrew Steptoe said: "Drinking tea has traditionally been associated with stress relief, and many people believe that drinking tea helps them relax after facing the stresses of everyday life.
"However, scientific evidence for the relaxing properties of tea is quite limited."
Professor Steptoe said it was unclear what ingredients in tea were responsible.
He said it was very complex, and ingredients such as catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids and amino acids had all been found to affect neurotransmitters in the brain.
Nevertheless, the study suggests that drinking black tea may speed up our recovery from the daily stresses in life.
"Although it does not appear to reduce the actual levels of stress we experience, tea does seem to have a greater effect in bringing stress hormone levels back to normal.
"This has important health implications because slow recovery following acute stress has been associated with a greater risk of chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease."
