Will Green Tea Provide The Prescription For Beating Cancer?

With early detection, cancer is no longer an automatic death sentence. But, an initial diagnosis still brings with it a number of queries: What’s the best course of treatment? Are standard approaches best? Or are non-traditional therapies preferable—notably if the cancer will not seem to retort to chemotherapy and radiation.

In recent years, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on unconventional therapies for cancer. For example, in an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Elizabeth Kaegi of the Task Force on Various Therapies of the Canadian Breast Cancer Analysis Initiative discussed the very fact that cancer patients are trying a variety of intriguing therapies, as well as Essiac, Iscador, hydrazine sulfate, vitamins A,C, and E, and 714-X. However perhaps one among the most standard therapies that has been tried is green tea. Of course, go to your native convenience store and you’ll notice jug after jug of green tea in various flavors. Still, you may be wondering what makes green tea therefore special—and if it really will help to combat cancer.

Green Tea—The Basics

Green tea is made by steaming or frying the leaves of the shrub referred to as Camellia sinensis. The leaves, which don’t seem to be fermented, are then dried. For 5,000 years, families in China and Japan have hailed green tea as a valuable stimulant and an efficient remedy for stomach ailments. You’ll be able to even purchase green tea in capsule form now, though the particular medicinal benefits from such capsules have however to be established.

Dried tea leaves are so much additional complex than you may think. Specifically, they are made up of phytochemicals, plant alkaloids, proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, phenolic acids, and minerals. After all, the precise composition of the leaves varies, depending on when the leaves are harvested and the way they’re processed. You should additionally be aware of the actual fact {that the} composition of green tea varies from that of black tea, since black tea has fewer polyphenols as a result of of the fermentation process.

Side Effects

Green tea can contain anywhere from 10 to 80 milligrams of caffeine—the particular amount depends on how it’s been made and stored. Since caffeine is a known stimulant, green tea could lead to a racing heart rate and insomnia. Thence, heart patients, pregnant women, and nursing mothers should ideally drink no more than two cups of green tea a day.

Cancer Prevention

Various scientific studies have explored the employment of green tea as a cancer preventative. Consistent with Kaegi, digestive cancers seem to be notably attentive to green tea. After all, such tea appears to somewhat decrease the danger of experiencing cancer of the digestive tract. Given the fact that such conclusions are the result of a range of epidemiological studies, it seems that the thought that green tea will forestall cancer has some merit.

News from the Lab

But what about treating cancer? Will green tea be as effective in treatment as it is in prevention? There has been some limited lab work investigating the likelihood that green tea will be used as an alternative form of cancer treatment. But, at this point, there have only been some animal studies and no human studies. The results of those studies are, at this time, inconclusive.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that one study showed that, if extracts of green tea are applied to mouse skin, it seems to prevent the event of skin cancer when known carcinogens are applied to the skin. Different research indicates that green tea can stop the growth of tumors or decrease the number of tumors in animals that have been exposed to cancer-causing agents.

In some animals, green tea and tea extracts prevented cancer cells from metastasizing. There also are indications that green tea extracts can forestall chromosomal abnormalities that can result in cancer, along with scale back the dimensions of breast and prostate tumors.

The Magic of EGCG

Green tea contains an antioxidant known as epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG. This substance appears to inhibit enzymes which are accountable for cell replication, stop the adhesion of cells, and disrupt the communication pathways that enable cell division to occur.  But, EGCG seems to be most critically vital as an antioxidant.

Final Conclusions

Researchers believe that there is evidence to counsel that green tea will be used to treat cancer. But, scientists add that additional analysis is totally essential in order to see the total vary of treatment that green tea might provide. For example, researchers must verify which cancers are most likely to be abated through the utilization of green tea or green tea extracts. Since there is conjointly evidence to indicate that green tea can prevent cancer as well, drinking green tea isn’t only safe—it’s conjointly highly recommended by some medical experts.  Thus, green tea could not just be a thirst-quencher—it could also be a key ingredient of a healthy diet.