- Drink To Your Health
- Tea:Good For Your Heart
- Tea may reduce risk of death after heart attack
- Tea Fights Skin Cancer
- 10 Foods That Pack a Wallop
- There's Something to Be Said for Having 'Tea Bones'
- Drinking Green Tea May Help You Lose Weight
- Tea's reputation as a healthy brew increasing
Drink to Your Health
Legend has it that the Chinese Emperor Cheng Nung suddenly discovered tea, which cleared his mind so effectively that he named the drink "Tai," meaning "Peace." In addition to the emotional benefits, tea provides a myriad of physiological benefits ranging from reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer, to preventing gum disease and tooth decay.
Tea: Good For Your Heart
The Times, JULY 1999
London (Reuters): Drinking one or more cups of tea a day can reduce the risk of having a heart attack, British researchers said Thursday. Britain's favorite brew contains natural compounds called flavonoids which can neutralize harmful chemicals that damage cells and can lead to heart attacks, stroke, and cancer.
At a one-day conference on flavonoids, researchers said a US study comparing tea, coffee and decaffeinated coffee consumption showed that people who had a cup or more of tea a day had a 44 percent reduction in heart attack risk compared to non-tea drinkers. "Tea was the beneficial component," said Professor Catherine Rice-Evans, who chaired the meeting. "This study establishes the efficacy of tea," said Rice-Evans, the co-director of the international Antioxidant Research Centre in London added at a press Conference.
The US study was conducted by Dr. Michael Gaziano and colleagues at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Medical School in Boston. The results were published in The American Journal of Epidemology.
Flavonoids are among the most powerful antioxidants - compounds that protect against chemicals in the body called free radicals that damage cells. Dr. Paul Quinlan, of the research arm of British tea maker Brooke Bond, said cells take about 10,000 hits from free radicals from sunlight, radiation, pollution, smoking and inflammation each day. So the more protection they can get from that damage the better. "Tea is a very powerful source of flavonoids," he said. "(They) prevent that damage from leading to heart disease, cancer and from blood clotting." He said a growing body of research has shown the benefits of tea and flavonoids.
There are 4,000 flavonoids in nature and five major types of dietary flavonoid. Onions, apples, tea and red wine are particularly rich sources of flavonoids. According to research presented at the meeting, two cups of tea have the antioxidant activity equivalent to four apples, five onions, seven oranges or two glasses of red wine.
When asked if adding milk to tea diluted its beneficial effects Quinlan said, "Adding milk does not prevent the absorption of flavonoids." The US study was limited to black tea. Earlier research by scientists at the Karilinska Institute in Stockholm showed that green tea helps to prevent cancer by blocking the growth of blood vessels that tumors need to survive and grow.
Tea may reduce risk of death after heart attack
May 6, 2002 Posted: 5:35 PM EDT (2135 GMT)
From Rhonda Rowland
CNN Medical Unit
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Drinking at least two cups of tea a day may dramatically reduce a person's chances of dying following a heart attack, a study suggests.
Researchers said they suspect properties found in black and green tea may be protecting the heart.
"The results were more dramatic than I anticipated," said Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, who led the study, which was published Monday in the American Heart Association's journal, Circulation.
"Even if the true effect of tea is less than what we found, it could still make a sizable difference in heart attack survival."
The heavy tea drinkers in the study -- those who drank two or more cups of tea a day -- had a 44 percent lower death rate following their heart attack, compared with nondrinkers. The study found even a benefit in moderate tea drinkers. Those who drank fewer than 14 cups a week had a 28 percent lower death rate.
In the study, researchers asked 1,900 heart attack survivors about their tea consumption before their heart problem and followed them for up to four years.
"The most important outcome after a heart attack is whether they lived or died," said Mukamal of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "This is a high-risk group of people who are prone to another heart attack or other heart events. To imagine that tea might lower this risk is very exciting."
Researchers said there's good reason to believe it's the flavonoids -- antioxidants found naturally in various foods derived from plants -- that are protecting the heart by relaxing the blood vessels so blood can flow more easily. There's also evidence to suggest flavonoids may prevent LDL cholesterol -- the so-called bad cholesterol -- from becoming really bad cholesterol.
So, should everyone start drinking tea to avoid death after a heart attack?
Mukamal isn't making that recommendation yet.
"Those who've had a heart attack and have been worried about caffeine in tea should be reassured," he said.
The study did not ask patients about decaffeinated tea use, but Mukamal said there's no reason to believe caffeine makes a difference in the benefit. However, herbal teas would not provide the same benefits since the chemical makeup is different than that found in black and green tea.
Dark beer, wine and whiskey also contain flavonoids but in amounts lower than that found in tea.
"Ultimately I hope this work will spur on more research so we can find out the exact effect of tea on the heart," Mukamal said, "so one day we could give a tea prescription, along with aspirin and other medications following a heart attack. It seems there are no downsides to drinking tea."
Tea Fights Skin Cancer
Reported September 9, 2003
Ivanhoe, Newswire -- health benefits of drinking tea may be more than skin-deep. Researchers from the University of Minnesota in Austin have developed a new cream, made of tea, they say could fight skin cancer.
Tea contains polyphenols, which researchers say appear to block skin tumors. Polyphenols are found in both black and green teas and, unlike sunblock, work after the skin is exposed to sunlight. The chemicals are thought to decrease levels of the enzyme JNK-2, which naturally increases after skin is exposed to sunlight. Because JNK-2 levels are decreased, researchers believe the polyphenols help inhibit tumor growth. Studies in mice show green tea polyphenols block the skin’s response to UV light.
Zigang Dong, M.D., from University of Minnesota in Austin’s Hormel Institute, says the new cream is an important step in improving skin cancer prevention. He says, “Topical application of certain tea polyphenols appears to block a key process that leads to skin cancer.”
Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. About 1 million new cases are reported each year. Previous studies show drinking tea may prevent the disease, but researchers say a topical cream is probably more effective. Dr. Dong says: “Drinking tea may help, but you’d have to drink a large amount to accumulate in the skin, perhaps as many as 10 cups a day. It’s easier to concentrate it in a cream form.“
The skin cream could be used alone or combined with sunscreen to maximize skin protection. Dr. Dong says testing in humans could begin within the next few years.
SOURCE: The 226th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New York City, Sept. 7-11, 2003
10 Foods That Pack a Wallop
Time Magazine Jan. 21, 2002
Eat, drink and be healthy!
Green Tea
By Janice M. Horowitz
In Asian societies green tea is consumed in about the same quantities as coffee is in the West. Green tea is loaded with polyphenols, a class of phytochemicals with 100 times the antioxidant punch of vitamin C. Laboratory experiments suggest that one group of polyphenols in green tea called catechins may inhibit the growth of new blood vessels, which some scientists think may help prevent cancer by depriving early tumors of nourishment. (Catechins may also prevent DNA damage caused by carcinogens from occurring in the first place.) Indeed, population studies in China link drinking green tea daily with a lowered risk of stomach, esophageal and liver cancers. Studies from Japan show that consuming 10 cups a day may reduce the risk of heart disease. If that much tea seems hard to swallow, consider using it is a mouthwash; reports suggest that swishing green tea around the mouth may inhibit cavity-causing bacteria. Applied to the skin of laboratory mice, it also seems to reduce the incidence of skin cancer. What about black tea? Made from the same leaves as green, though processed differently, it may be equally effective, scientists suspect.
There's Something to Be Said for Having 'Tea Bones'
For British Ladies, Afternoon Tea Appears to Help Prevent Osteoporosis
By Jeanie Davis
WebMD Medical News
April 13, 2000 ( Atlanta) -- Ladies, start your teapots! A new study from England shows that tea may build and strengthen bones -- protecting women against osteoporosis. If milk is added to the tea, the benefit is boosted even more.
Although several studies have cited caffeine intake a risk factor for osteoporosis and hip fracture in women, at least two European studies have reported that tea drinking protected against hip breaks.
The current study shows that "the magnitude of the effects of drinking tea was notable," writes lead author Verona M. Hegarty, PhD, a gerontology researcher at England's University of Cambridge School of Medicine. Older women who drank tea had higher bone mineral density measurements, an indicator of bone health, than those who did not drink tea. "Nutrients found in tea ... [may] protect against osteoporosis in older women," concludes Hegarty.
Her study, which involved over 1,200 women living in Cambridge, is published in this month's issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The women completed questionnaires regarding their health and lifestyle that included questions on daily tea and coffee consumption, smoking habits, physical activity, alcohol intake, whether they drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee, whether coffee was instant or ground, whether they used hormone replacement therapy, if they added milk to tea, and so on. Each also had their bone mineral density measured, which showed bone strength in the spine and the area where hip breaks most often occur.
Among the women, there were over 1,100 tea drinkers and just about 120 non-tea drinkers, all between the ages of 65 and 76.
Tea drinkers had significantly greater bone mineral density measurements. Among coffee drinkers, those who also drank tea had significantly higher measurements as well.
"These findings were independent of smoking status, use of hormone replacement therapy, coffee drinking, and whether milk was added to tea," says Hegarty. Also, number of cups of tea per day did not seem to play a role, and women who added milk to their tea had much higher bone mineral density in the hip area.
Though more study is needed, Hegarty suggests that tea has components that weakly mimic the effect of the female hormone, estrogen -- documented by other researchers -- and may be important in maintaining bone mineral density in postmenopausal women. Hegarty writes that tea's attributes may have little effect in younger women and men but may be important in keeping bones healthy in older women.
"This research presents some interesting findings," Pamela Meyers, PhD, tells WebMD. "Most research on teas, especially on green tea, has looked at its ability to lower risks of cancer and heart disease. This is the first I have seen that has researched the effects of tea on BMD." Meyers is a clinical nutritionist and assistant professor at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta.
Drinking Green Tea May Help You Lose Weight
Important Compounds Found to Increase Calorie Burning
By L.A. McKeown
WebMD Medical News
March 22, 2000 (New York) -- Green tea, which has been reported to have anticancer properties and to raise levels of antioxidants in the blood that may ward off heart disease, now appears to have the potential to promote weight loss. A new study in the March issue of the International Journal of Obesity concludes that green tea extract increases the burning of calories and fat needed to lose weight.
Previous animal studies showed that green tea extract increased thermogenesis, which is the generation of body heat that occurs as a result of normal digestion, absorption, and metabolization of food. In previous human studies, the authors showed that consumption of green tea increased thermogenesis as well as energy expenditure and fat loss in healthy men, suggesting that green tea in liquid or capsule form may be an effective way to aid weight loss.
In the new study, conducted by Abdul Dulloo, from the Institute of Physiology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, researchers exposed a particular type of fatty tissue from rats to caffeine and to green tea extract containing small concentrations of caffeine.
Green tea containing caffeine significantly increased thermogenesis by 28% to 77%, depending on dose, whereas caffeine alone resulted in no significant increase. When the stimulant ephedrine was added to green tea with caffeine, the increase was even more significant compared with caffeine alone and ephedrine alone. Caffeine and ephedrine are used together in some herbal weight loss preparations, but there are many safety concerns regarding ephedrine because it raises heart rate and blood pressure.
Dulloo and colleagues also tested the plant compound EGCG found in green tea. They found that the stimulant ephedrine alone had no effect on thermogenesis, but that caffeine plus ephedrine resulted in an 84% increase. However, adding EGCG to the caffeine plus ephedrine mix increased thermogenesis even further.
"Our studies ... raise the possibility that the therapeutic potential of the green tea extract, or indeed a combination of EGCG and caffeine, may be extended to the management of obesity," Dulloo and co-authors write.
A researcher who reviewed the study for WebMD says that while the work is interesting and extends this group's previous findings by showing that compounds in green tea other than caffeine are involved in thermogenesis, caution should be used in interpreting animal data and applying it to humans.
"They used [a particular type of fatty tissue] from rats and we don't really know how significant that tissue is in humans or if it is different in obese vs. non-obese people," says Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr, PhD. "It doesn't rule out the significance of the findings, and it is a good model to use to look at the effects of caffeine and the combination of caffeine and the [plant] compounds that are present in green tea, but until better clinical trials are done in humans, it's hard to say what the physiological significance of this actually may be."
Zidenberg-Cherr, who is an associate professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis, also points out that thermogenesis plays only a very small role in energy expenditure in adults.
Tea's reputation as a healthy brew increasing
June 19, 2000
Web posted at: 3:45 PM EDT (1945 GMT)
By Sue Licher
WebMD -- Few people drink as much tea as physician John Weisburger, Ph.D. To him, each cup is more than just a steamy, comforting brew. What has led him to sip almost a dozen cups a day is the growing -- even astonishing -- evidence of tea's health-promoting properties.
According to Weisburger, tea is probably the single best thing you can add to your diet to ward off serious illness. This conviction will doubtless raise a few hackles among colleagues who give that honor to fresh fruit and vegetables. But Weisburger, who chaired two international scientific symposiums on tea and human health, is convinced of his message.
As evidence, he points to numerous studies suggesting that tea -- which made its way slowly to the west after originating in China more than 4,000 years ago -- can help prevent cancer and heart disease.
That would seem endorsement enough for tea, which, next to water, is already the most widely consumed beverage in the world. But the latest news about tea may invite even some loyal coffee drinkers to reconsider their choice: Researchers have found that tea -- with or without milk -- may actually help strengthen bones in postmenopausal women.
When tea prevails
Women age 65 to 75 who drank at least one cup of tea every day had significantly higher bone density in the spine and thighs -- common areas of fractures caused by osteoporosis -- than women of the same age who didn't drink any tea, according to a British study published in the April 2000 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Comparing 1,134 tea drinkers to 122 non-tea-drinkers, researchers at the University of Cambridge School of Medicine concluded that drinking caffeinated tea may protect against osteoporosis -- even though high caffeine intake has been linked with an increased risk of reduced bone density. As the British researchers point out, most studies are from populations where coffee serves as the major source of caffeine.
While researchers have yet to determine how tea works on bones, they suspect that antioxidants are key players. Tea antioxidants, called polyphenols, may be 100 times as effective as vitamin C and 25 times as effective as vitamin E, according to Weisburger. These antioxidants neutralize free radicals -- destructive byproducts of the body's natural chemical processes. (Unfortunately for herbal tea drinkers, herbal teas are made from altogether different plants and spices and often contain no polyphenols at all.) Polyphenols' ability to protect the body from free-radical damage may be behind tea's two best-studied benefits -- protection against cancer and lower heart disease risk.
A barrier to cancer?
Whether tea really helps prevent cancer is still under debate, but research in its favor is piling up. In one of the largest studies to date, Iowa researchers found that tea may be a powerful cancer fighter, according to a study published in the July 1996 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The study of more than 35,000 postmenopausal women showed that those who drank at least two cups of black tea a day were 40 percent less likely to develop urinary tract cancer and 68 percent less likely to develop cancer in the digestive tract than women who did not drink tea.
Other research shows that tea may be a promising weapon in the fight against cancers of the stomach, bladder, esophagus and prostate. Moreover, a study in China concluded that smokers who drink tea have a lower incidence of lung cancer, Weisburger noted in an April 1999 summary of the Second International Symposium on Tea and Human Health.
If tea indeed reduces cancer risk, it may be because its polyphenols pack a three-part punch. First, they prevent free radicals from damaging DNA, nipping cancer initiation in the bud. Second, they seem to prevent uncontrolled cell growth, slowing cancer development. And third, certain polyphenols may even destroy cancer cells without harming the surrounding healthy cells. When Japanese researchers combined cancer medications with polyphenols, the treatment was 20 times more effective than the cancer drugs alone, according to a study published in the March 1998 issue of the Japanese Journal of Cancer Research.
Playing on the heart
Other scientists have found that the powerful antioxidants in tea may also help reduce the risk of heart disease. In one study, researchers found that women age 55 or older who drank as little as a cup or two of black tea a day, were 54 percent less likely to have severe atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart attack or stroke, than those who did not. The more tea they drank, the less their risk, according to a study published in the October 11, 1999 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
That could be because the antioxidants work by preventing "bad" (LDL, low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol from promoting the plaque build-up that clogs arteries, researchers speculate. And by preventing atherosclerosis, tea antioxidants can help the arteries supply nourishing blood to the heart and the rest of the body.
A matter of health
All this research has probably got you putting the kettle on the stove. But until further studies are done, most health care professionals say the best way to prevent cancer, heart disease and other diet-related ills is to enjoy a diet that's low in fat and high in fiber, with lots of antioxidant-rich foods.
But by all means, include some green or black tea. If Weisburger and other researchers are right, you could be one sip closer to a long and healthy life.
