Green tea extract improves glucose control in borderline diabetics

The August, 2008 issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the discovery of researchers in Japan that supplementing the diet with green tea extract improves fasting hemoglobin A1c, a blood marker that is regularly tested in diabetics to assess long term glucose control. Read more

Mayo Clinic finds green tea extract fights leukemia

In an article appearing online on May 26, 2009 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mayo Clinic researchers report positive effects for a green tea compound known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in a phase I trial involving patients with early stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common subtype of leukemia in the United States, is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that is characterized by abnormal proliferation of white blood cells known as lymphocytes. Half of the patients with early stage CLL have an aggressive form of the disease which increases the risk of early mortality.

Acting on preliminary findings that included a significant effect of EGCG against leukemia cells in cell cultures as well as in some CLL patients who used over the counter green tea supplements, Mayo Clinic hematologist Tait Shanafelt, MD and colleagues administered 8 doses varying from 400 to 2000 milligrams twice per day of an extract containing EGCG as its active ingredient to 33 CLL patients. Continue Reading

Tea: anti-bioterrorism weapon

A tea cup may hold the potential to protect humans from bioterrorist threats according to an article published in the March, 2008 issue of the Society for Applied Microbiology's journal Microbiologist.

Professor Les Baillie from Welsh School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University and Dr Theresa Gallagher of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute in Baltimore describe how compounds found in Camellia sinensis, the plant whose leaves are commonly used to produce tea, possess the ability to inhibit the activity of several strains of infectious bacteria, including Legionella pneumophila, by stimulating intracellular antibacterial activity.

Extracts from the plant also have a direct antimicrobial action at concentrations found in a standard cup of tea. In addition to targeting the microorganisms themselves, tea compounds have been found to inhibit the biological activity of the toxins they produce. Neurotoxins produced by Clostridium tetani and Clostridium botulinum (a potential bioterrorism agent) are inhibited by thearubigins found in black tea, which are generated during the fermentation of green tea leaves.

Thearubigins are believed to exert their effect prior to the cells’ uptake of these toxins. Similarly, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), one of the active compounds upon which much of the current tea research has been centered, inhibits the activity of the lethal toxin produced by Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), which can fatally infect humans. Continue Reading

Cocoa Polyphenols - Life Extension Videos

Polyphenols are powerful natural nutrients that act as antioxidants, protecting against the attacks of free radicals in the body.

The presence of an excess of these free radicals, which are highly unstable molecules which can cause widespread damage throughout the body, is triggered by stress, pollution, direct exposure to sunlight, an unbalanced diet, smoking, and other factors.