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Green Tea May be the Answer for Battling and Even Preventing Many Types of Cancer and Arthritis! by Researches from several different Universities

Many Top Universities and Research Centers from Around the World Say that Green Tea May be the Answer for Battling and Even Preventing Many Types of Cancer and Arthritis!

Purdue University, Ind.:

Researchers, Dorothy Morre and D. James Moore, found that EGCg (epigallocatechin gallate), a compound in green tea, inhibits an enzyme required for cancer cell growth and kills cancer cells with no ill effect on healthy cells. The Purdue team determined how cancer cells died. "In the presence of EGCg, the cancer cells literally failed to grow or enlarge after division then presumably because they did not reach the minimum size needed to divide they underwent programmed cell death, or apoptosis".

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, OH.:

Researchers have found an ingredient that kills cancer cells while sparing healthy cells. Hasan Mukhtar, a professor of dermatology at CWRU, tested the ingredient EGCg on cancerous human and mouse cells of the skin, lymph system and prostate and on normal human cells. In the test tube, it led to apoptosis or programmed cell death in the cancer cells but left healthy cells unharmed. "The killing of cancer cells and sparing of normal cells is very interesting because apoptosis is a programmed cell death which is a normal process going on in the body all the time. It is a preferential way of elimination of unwanted cells from the body".

Prevention Magazine

Scientists slipped some mice a Green Tea ingredient (Polyphenols) in their drinking water - the equivalent of 3 to 4 cups of Green Tea for a human. When injected with a rheumatoid arthritis forming compound, fewer than half of the mice developed RA, compared to 92% of the mice who drank plain water (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 1999). Also, very few people develop RA in regions of China and India where Green Tea is grown and its consumption is high.

Green Tea's Polyphenols pack 300 to 400 times the antioxidant power of Vitamins E and C, says lead study author Tariq M. Haqqi, PhD, from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Also, Polyphenols seem to slam the door on dangerous inflammatory cells that migrate into joints and do most of RA's damage. Early test tube studies hint that Green Tea may stop the destruction of human cartilage cells caused by osteo-arthritis.

Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine, Beijing:

Dr. Junshi Chen stated for the first time his research and clinical trials point to the protective effects of green tea on humans with cancer. He used a liquid mixture of green and black tea which was rubbed on pre-cancerous lesions. This treatment significantly reduced the growth of pre-cancerous cells. Dr. Chenís research also showed that tea slowed the development of lung tumors and colon cancer in mice.

American Cancer Society:

Tea plays a possible role in preventing some types of cancer according to researcher, Dr. John Weisburger. His report was presented at the Second International Scientific Symposium on tea and human health in Washington, DC. "The antioxidants in tea prevent the formation of hazardous products that occur in the body during normal metabolic reactions". "The antioxidants in tea lower the formation of these dangerous, oxidized form of chemicals that may cause cancer in the human body".

Journal of the National Cancer Institute:

A powerful antioxidant ingredient found in green tea kills human cancer cells in laboratory experiments, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute for December 17.

Prostate Cancer and Green Tea:

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a plant substance in green tea that is a potent killer of prostate cancer cells. Charles Y-F Young, Ph.D., and colleagues tested four common components of green tea on cell cultures of three different lines of prostate cancer. One of the tea components, called EGCg, was found to be most potent in inhibiting the growth of prostate cancer cells. Young says the chemical structure of EGCg is similar to substances found in red wine and vegetables. The Mayo Clinic study, published in the August 1998, issue of the Journal Cancer Letters, found that green tea not only inhibited cell growth, it also produced fragmented nuclei and other signs of apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

More Evidence on Green Tea:

A new study by a team of Swedish researchers adds support to the growing body of evidence that green tea contains compounds that fight cancer. Dr. Yihai Cao and Dr. Renhai Cao of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found green tea contains a compound called EGCg which helps inhibit blood vessel growth. This could be useful in preventing tumors from forming new blood vessels, which they need to survive. In a study on mice, the researchers also found animals fed green tea showed a 55% to 70% reduction in blood vessel development in the cornea of the eye, a finding that could prove helpful to diabetics suffering from retinopathy, researchers say. Other studies have shown EGCg blocked an enzyme needed for cancer cell growth and kept cells from becoming cancerous without harming surrounding healthy cells. The researchers point out heavy consumption of green tea may not be beneficial for women who are pregnant or for people recovering from wounds, conditions that both require blood vessel development. This study appears in the April issue of Nature.

Scientists Report Benefits of Green Tea:

At the Second International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health in Washington D.C., scientists are discussing the possible benefits of consuming both black and green tea. A study led by Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg of Tufts University in Boston showed tea increased the antioxidant capacity of the blood. And Dr. Chung Yang of Rutgers University says both black and green tea contain phytochemicals that function as antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules that help prevent cellular damage. Animal studies also have shown that tea may reduce the risk of lung cancer.

Green Tea Enhances Cancer Drugs:

Cancer patients may find one day that consuming green tea increases the effectiveness of their cancer drugs. Researchers from the Saitama Prefectural Cancer Center in Japan say combining a chemical found in green tea with cancer drugs made the drugs 20 times more effective. Scientist Masami Suganuma says she added epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) to a test tube that contained the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and breast cancer cells. According to Suganuma, the tamoxifen with the green tea chemical killed twice as many breast cancer cells as the unadulterated drug. Researchers from the Show University School of Medicine in Tokyo also point out that people living in a tea producing area in Japan called Shizuoka have very low rates of some cancers. People in that region drink an average of 10 cups of tea daily, researchers say. These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Japanese Cancer Association near Tokyo.

American Society of Cell Biology:

In a paper delivered at the ASCB, scientists reported that they found that green tea affects an enzyme known as NOX. According to these scientists, normal cells express the NOX enzyme only when they are dividing in response to growth hormone signals. In contrast, cancer cells have somehow gained the ability to express NOX activity at all times. This tumor-associated NOX activity is called tNOX. They found that a substance in green tea, epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCg for short, interfered with tNOX but not with normal NOX. This was the first study to directly link the EGCg in green tea to anti-cancer activity. In the laboratory, EGCg limited the activity of breast cancer tumor cells but did not affect normal, healthy breast cells. This might be one explanation as to why the incidence of breast cancer in Japan is so low.

UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas:

Doctors at UTSMC say you shouldnít confuse green tea with black tea more commonly served in the United States. Black Tea leaves have been oxidized and have less of the anti-cancer ingredients. On the other hand, green tea is full of antioxidants that help fight disease.

University of Minnesota:

A study from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis assessed the link between drinking non-herbal tea (green tea) and cancer incidence by food questionnaire. The scientists reported inverse associations between tea consumption and risk of cancers of the stomach, oropharynx, esophagus and kidney. There was over a 50% lower risk of these cancers associated with daily tea consumption.

National Cancer Center Research Institute, Japan:

Some kinds of cancer seem to be less common in the Orient than in Europe and the Americas. A few of these differences are well documented: for example, Japanese cigarette smokers have a lower rate of lung cancer than do US cigarette smokers. By 1987, the green tea connection was clear enough to encourage Hirota Fujiki, a chemist at NCCRI Japan, to analyze the brew for compounds that might be the source of the apparent benefit. He found a likely candidate in an antioxidant known as epigallocatechin gallate or EGCg. Some antioxidants are known to protect against tumor development by destroying the highly reactive free radicals, atoms or molecules that disrupt normal cell process and confound the proper operation of DNA. Dr. Fujiki fed mice a carcinogen known to affect the digestive tract, 63% of the mice developed intestinal cancer. When mice were fed the same dose of the carcinogen but also treated with EGCg, only 20% of the mice developed cancer. In mice specially bred to be susceptible to liver cancer, EGCg reduced the number of liver tumors and sometimes prevented them altogether.

Alternative Health & Medicine Encyclopedia:

Studies show that green tea can dramatically reduce the risk of many types of cancer including liver, breast, lung, pancreatic and skin cancers. Researchers think green tea compounds work as a sort of super antioxidant, able to block the interaction of tumor promoters. Green tea and its compounds also lower the risk of heart disease and stroke by preventing the development of blockages in the arteries. It also keeps blood sugars at a healthfully low level and helps combat viruses.

Kansas University, Lawrence:

Lester Mitscher, Ph.D. of Kansas University and an expert in the causes of cancer was so impressed with green tea that he now takes a daily green tea supplement.