foodconsumer.org: Green tea prevents blood cancer

Green tea prevents blood cancer
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admin on 08/01/2009 18:46:00
 
By David Liu (davidl@foodconsumer.org)
Drinking a few cups of green tea daily may significantly reduce risk of blood
and lymph cancers, a new Japanese study in the American Journal of Epidemiology
suggests.
The study shows that drinking five or more cups of green tea per day may cut the
risk of the named cancers by as much as 50 percent.
Drinking five or more cups of green tea each day was also associated with a 42
percent reduction in the risk of hematologic malignancies and a 48 percent
reduction in the risk of lymphoid neoplasms, according to the study report.
Toru Naganuma at Tohoku University School of Medicine in Japan and colleagues
conducted the study to examine the anti-cancer properties of green tea, which is
known to be high in polyphenols.
Previous biochemical research has shown the green tea ingredients mainly for
polyphenols known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC),
epicatechin gallate (ECG), and epicatechin (EC), particularly EGCG, may help
fight cancer cells by promoting apoptosis of cancerous cells.
For the study, Naganuma and team followed 41,761 adults enrolled in the Ohsaki
National Health Insurance Cohort Study.
During the nine-year follow-up, 157 cases of cancer including 119 cases of
lymphoid neoplasms and 36 cases of myeloid neoplasms were recorded.
The researchers found participants who drank five or more cups of green tea each
day were much less likely to develop the named cancers.  The risk reduction was
not affected by their gender and body mass index.
The finding does not suggest a causal relation between drinking green tea and
lower incidence of cancer.  Based on early research, the causal relation is
possible.