Posted on 12/07/2007 4:35:01 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An extract of green tea wards off colorectal cancer, animal experiments show.
According to research reported at the Sixth International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention, sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, a standardized green tea polyphenol preparation (Polyphenon E) limits the growth of colorectal tumors in rats treated with a substance that causes the cancer.
"Our findings show that rats fed a diet containing Polyphenon E are less than half as likely to develop colon cancer," Dr. Hang Xiao, from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, noted in a statement.
These results are consistent with previously published results, which showed that green tea consumption was associated with lower colon cancer rates in Shanghai, China, he also noted.
In the study, Xiao and colleagues injected rats with azoxymethane, a chemical known to produce colorectal tumors that share many characteristics with colorectal cancer in humans. Then they fed the animals a high-fat Western-style diet with or without Polyphenon E for 34 weeks. The amount of Polyphenon the animals took in was roughly equal to about four to six cups of green tea per day.
Polyphenon E decreased the total number of tumors per rat and decreased tumor size, compared with control rats that were not given Polyphenon E, Xiao told the conference.
"In the control group," he said, "67 percent of rats developed malignant tumors while in the treated group only 27 percent of rats had malignant tumors. Most important, tea polyphenols decreased the number of malignant tumors per rat by 80 percent compared to the control group."
When the researchers analyzed blood and colon tissue samples, they found a "considerable amount of tea polyphenols in those samples in treated animals, and those levels of tea polyphenols were comparable to the human situation after ingestion of tea leaves or tea beverage," Xiao noted.
The researchers believe these findings will pave the way for clinical trials with green tea polyphenols in humans.
Look like Green tea, for many different reasons, may be the Real Deal. One of the few “natural” supplements to have the scientific data to back it up.
I drink tea almost daily(I have a one pound bag of chineese tea I’m workin on that is awesome),but not in that quantity! tea,like coffee,I think,is a diuretic....anyways,when sick(I havent had a cold in 5yrs) I super soak myself with tea and honey,maybe some brandy too ;-)... the question I have never researched is what exactly is the difference in what is is used to make black,green or white(the new craze) ?
Brew probably want to see this.
Five to one, baby, one in five. No one here gets out alive.
Brew is absolutely right. thanks for the ping.
But it will rot your teeth (or so I hear).
Did it ever occur to them that the tea may only be inhibiting the substance they used to induce the cancer in the first place?
What about green tea ice cream? That tastes a lot better!
For America, they need a third group of mice which take green tea and also eat a Philly cheesesteak, a six-pack of Bud, and a pack of Marlboros each day.
There's a doc on discovery "How It's Made" that gives a very brief summary.
Somebody before you said it rots the teeth? Who should I believe : )
Nothin better than a good old-fashioned cup of English breakfast. Green tea tastes like it sounds.
Teeth can be replace one way or another (false or implants); last I heard the colon couldn’t be replaced.
Teeth can be replace one way or another (false or implants); last I heard the colon couldn’t be replaced. ;-)
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