07.09.09
The Mayo Clinic says green tea treats leukemia
posted by Michelle Rabin | 2 comments
I was delighted to hear more good news related to green tea. Dr. Shanafelt, from the prestigious Mayo Clinic, recently published his findings on green tea in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He found that green tea extracts were effective in reducing the lymphocytes that the body makes in those suffering from lymphocytic leukemia. In addition, the majority of those experiencing enlarged lymph nodes saw an over 50% reduction in the size of their lymph nodes. All this without any side effects, which typically represent the tragic consequences of drug therapy used to treat cancer.
Although I’m pleased by these results, I would very much like to see researchers using actual green tea when designing their research. I understand that it’s difficult to standardize a plant and its constituents, but I think there’s enough epidemiological evidence from Asia, over the last three decades, to support the health benefits of drinking green tea.
When I first began drinking green tea, I must confess to wanting to capture the perceived health benefits of this ancient brew. Today, however, those benefits are not at the forefront of my mind. It’s the taste, the aroma, the ritual that I seek. It calms me when I’m feeling stressed, and it inspires me when I’m working on a project. I can’t imagine a day without tea. Some might say I’m addicted. I would say I’m in love.
July 10th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
You’re right. Tea should be treated just like any other food and taken as a whole food. The extracts are not only incomplete nutritionally but they have health risks as well as benefits. They can cause liver damage but I’ve never heard of anyone suffering from any liver problems from drinking too many cups of tea!
July 18th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Michelle - Those of us who join you as tea lovers, are blessed to be able to get a double whammy from tea: First, there are all of the wonderful direct health benefits that we often report here at T Ching, and second, we also get actual physiological health benefits, secondarily, from the presence of positive emotions and experiences such as joy, love, pleasure, relaxation etc. that go along with our tea consumption. We can all be very appreciative for all the benefits that regular tea practice provides.