Green Tea Defend Against Cancer-Causing Toxins
August 22, 2007 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Coffee addict. That’s me. I cannot start the day without coffee and I cannot go on with my day without having more coffee somewhere in between. I need the perk that the caffeine in coffee provides. I cannot remember exactly when I started drinking coffee. But I guess it must be early in my teens, because I am one of those that gave up drinking milk early.
Anyway, I can live with the perk the whole day, but at night time I need something to calm me down. I dare not drink coffee beyond 5 pm, otherwise, I will be awake the whole night. So, to calm me down, I usually drink (cups of) tea after dinner. Tea has that soothing effect for me, especially green tea.
We have read and heard so many health benefits from green tea already. It’s anti-heart disease benefits and most importantly, green tea’s anti-cancer benefits. In fact, if you search this blog for the keyword green tea, many entries will come out.
These latest findings on green tea gives light into the mechanism by which the chemicals in green tea can protect us from cancer:
Concentrated chemicals derived from green tea dramatically boosted production of a group of key detoxification enzymes in people with low levels of these beneficial proteins.
According to the study’s lead investigator, H.-H. Sherry Chow, Ph.D., a research associate professor at the University of Arizona:
“They actually convert known carcinogens to non-toxic chemicals, and studies have shown a correlation between deficient expression of these enzymes and increased risk of developing some cancers.
Expression of this enzyme varies dramatically in people due to genetic variation and environmental factors. Green tea catechins somehow increase gene expression of these enzymes, which can be an advantage to people with low levels to start with.”
Well, don’t we just love green tea more for the above reasons? Findings appear in the August issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention – a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
