In a preliminary animal study, it has been shown that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a compound found in green tea, may help treat severe sepsis, an abnormal immune system response to a bacterial infection.
In the latest study, Dr. Wang’s group gave a substance in green tea called EGCG to mice in the throes of severe sepsis. The dose was equivalent to 10 cups in a human. Survival jumped from 53 percent in those who didn’t receive the green tea substance to 82 percent in those who did. “Clinically, even if we could save five percent of patients, that would be huge,” …read more

Picked this one up from the Cancer Commentary: drinking five cups of green tea a day may reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 48%.
The Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study (JPHC Study) studied 49,920 Japanese men aged from 40 to 69. The participants completed a questionnaires at the start of the study to identify dietary intakes, including their habitual green tea consumption.
The study, initially established in 1990, followed the men through until 2004, and 404 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in this time. Of these cases, 114 were advanced cases, 271 were localized, and 19 were undeterminable.
Green tea …read more

Score another point for green tea. Aside from the growing number of health benefits of drinking tea that I’ve pointed out in the past, a preparation that consists of concentrated green tea catechins has also been found to boost the body’s production of enzymes believed to be crucial to the body’s production of detoxification enzymes. Polyphenon E, which contains epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in amounts equivalent to about 8-16 cups of green tea, increased the production of glutathione S-transferase group of enzymes.
GST enzymes are believed to be crucial to the body’s defense against cancer-causing chemicals and other toxins, according to the …read more

Soon, green tea is going to be a panacea for all diseases, I think. Because of its epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) content, green tea has been demonstrated to have potentials in preventing or treating autoimmune diseases, HIV infection, cancer, and others.
A new study also suggests that EGCG may also provide therapeutic benefits to people with rheumatoid arthritis.
The researchers looked at whether the green tea compound has the capability to block the activity of two potent molecules, IL-6 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), which also are actively involved in causing bone erosion in the joints of people with rheumatoid arthritis.
[In untreated cells], a sequence …read more

Results from an animal trial suggest that green tea may help prevent autoimmune diseases such as Sjogren’s Syndrome, a chronic disease in which white blood cells attack the moisture-producing glands that produce tears and saliva.
Researchers studied the salivary glands of the water-consuming group and a green tea extract-consuming group to look for inflammation and the number of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cells that gather at sites of inflammation to fend off foreign cells.
The group treated with green tea had significantly fewer lymphocytes, Dr. Hsu says. Their blood also showed lower levels of autoantibodies, …read more

A flavonoid compound found in green tea, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), may have potentials into beign developed as an HIV drug. The authors said that “physiological levels” of EGCG equivalent to the amount in just a cup or two of green tea inhibited HIV binding by 40 percent.
This was discovered by Japanese scientists in 2003, but by using computers to image the exact shape of the proteins and working out the electronic processes involved, Nance’s team worked out that ECGC sticks to exactly the same amino acid (component) of the CD4 molecule as gp120 — the “docking module” of HIV …read more