I’ve been drinking 10 - 20 tea bags worth of the stuff a day for a few years now, and I haven’t had a sick day since. I’m off the beta blocker I was taking for my hypertension, and I feel good!
My boss learned Friday that she has metastatic cancer. Her CT shows nodules throughout her lungs and something on her adrenals. A pelvic ultrasound and lung biopsies will be done this week. She puts on a strong front, but she’s scared shitless-and for good reason.
I’ve told her about all of the great things I’ve learned over the years about green tea, and I’ve done all of the web research there is on the subject. I’m looking for real people with real life experiences on how green tea helped cure their ills.
No. There is no evidence that it can. Sorry to burst your bubble. There is some evidence out there that moderate consumption may reduce the risk of some types of cancer, but the association is not very strong, and may be due to the fact that a person who drinks a lot of green tea also tends to eat more healthily in general.
There arre also theories as to why it could be effective, but that’s a long way from proving that it is.
There’s a lot of crap on the net about green tea’s properties, but many, many people are drawing conclusions on virtually no evidence. The plural of anecdote is not data. (thanks to whoever posted that last at SDMB)
The benefits of green tea as a cancer inhibitor have been touted for years. Epidemiological studies in the 1970’s associated drinking green and black teas (both are from the same plant; tea is “green” if its leaves are not fermented before drying) with a variety of health benefits.
Recent research has shown that a chemical in tea, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) interacts with certain enzymes that control cell growth. One of the enzymes, quinol oxidase (NOX) regulates how fast cells enlarge after they divide. A tumor-associated NOX (tNOX) disrupts a cell's divide-and-rest cycle, allowing uninterrupted growth of cancerous cells. EGCG inhibits tNOX activity. Because green tea's EGCG content is higher, the effects of green tea are ten times as powerful as black tea (US News & World Report, December 21, 1998; Science News, January 2, 1999).
Several Swedish studies indicate that EGCG prevents angiogenesis, the process in which cancerous tumors nourish themselves by growing blood vessels.
Tea also contains polyphenols, which may work like antioxidants, to reduce the effects of LDL cholesterol. (Health & Nutrition Letter, February 1999) University of California, Berkley’s Wellness Letter, March 2000, reports that polyphenols also contribute to anti-cancer potential, by halting the damage that free radicals do to cells, neutralizing enzymes essential for tumor growth, and deactivating cancer promotors. All teas (except herbal teas) have a similar amount.
Tea also contains quercetin. This is a major flavonoid found in red wine, but also found in fruits, vegetables, and teas.
All of which nicely document what I originally stated, that consumption of green tea may be associated with reducing the risk for certain types of cancers. None of those sites cited claim any benefit from treating cancer with green tea.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with drinking green tea. I sure don’t think it would hurt, and theory at least implies that it might just conceivably help. I just see absolutely no scientific evidence to get someone’s hopes up thinking that it will cure a cancer already present. And please don’t advocate using green tea instead of a bona fide therapeutic regimen(not that you did, of course).
Dr QTM: Your point is well taken and thank you for your response. She will go through the standard chemo regimen which IMHO will kill her faster than the cancer itself, but she is also, at my suggestion, going to take green tea tablets. She does have a masters in nursing and public health and is not basing her decision on the ramblings of a demented Respiratory Care manager. Think of all of the unemployed oncologists there would be if green tea were proven to work. And Lilly & Pfizer et al stock would plummet. Where is the incentive to do the research that would satisfy the medical community?
I am still interested in hearing from anyone who has benefited from green tea as an alternative or adjunct to chemo- or radiation therapy.
Well, the oncologists I know would be delighted to have to deal with less cancer, and the grim outcome of so many of their patients. There’s always room for them back in primary care. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
Not to go all anecdotal on you again, but my SO went through chemo for breast cancer a few yrs ago, and though the specter of those nasty chemicals coursing thru her body worried her far more than the radiation or surgery, the side effects from chemo were fairly mild. Natch, your mileage will vary.
Cripers, man! Please don’t repeat that sort of thing around her, OK?
Yes, chemo (and radiation and surgery and…) can be nasty, but it’s not a death sentence in and of itself! People can, and do, recover from cancer, chemo effects, and other side effects of treatment and go on to live good lives. Let’s try to be a little hopeful here, OK?
In any case, this sort of treatment decision is between her and her doctors. Even when medical intervention can’t cure it can sometimes extend life or alleviate other symptoms of her disease, which may be of value to her.
“Natural”/plant-derived remedies have been repeatedly improved upon, standardized and adopted by the medical community where shown to be effective (taxol, derived from the Pacific yew tree is one recent example from the area of chemotherapeutics).
Put another way, some promoters of unproven remedies have a substantial disincentive (including ego-based and financial reasons) to fund research into alternative treatments.
Anyone up for a guess on how much tea producers and health food stores are paying to bankroll the research that would settle the green tea question?