DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture » Tea

Tea and ovarian cancer

DAAN — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:27:15 +0000

A recent study has found that regular drinking of tea can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, just another reason to pick up the habit of drinking tea.

Having two cups of black tea or one cup of green tea a day can help cut down risk of developing ovarian cancer in women, says a study .

Researchers at the University of Washington studied 2,000 women and noticed a 54 per cent risk reduction in those who drank one or more cups of green tea a day, the Daily Express reported.

A second study by the National Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm discovered that those drinking at least two cups of black tea daily slashed the risk of ovarian cancer by nearly 50 per cent.

The amazing green tea

DAAN — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:38:31 +0000

Many have touted the health benefits of green tea and recent studies have concluded that regular consumption of green tea can lead to a longer and healthier life.

Green tea, red wine and dark chocolate — three colourful solutions that may help you live longer
IS there any other food or drink that has as many health benefits as green tea? The Chinese have known about its medicinal benefits since ancient times and they use it to treat everything from headaches to depression.

In her book, Green Tea: The Natural Secret For A Healthier Life, Nadine Taylor writes that green tea had been used as medicine in China for at least 4,000 years. Today, scientific research in both Asia and the West is providing hard evidence for the health benefits long associated with green tea.

For example, in 1994, the Journal Of The National Cancer Institute published the results of an epidemiological study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of oesophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly 60 per cent.

University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells.

There is also research to indicate that drinking green tea lowers total cholesterol levels, as well as improving the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol.

The great thing about green tea is that it tastes great and does not call for milk or sugar.

So in reality, it’s a zero-calorie drink! Harvard researchers speculate that the health benefits of green tea are largely due to its high content of flavonoids — plant-derived compounds that are antioxidants.

Green tea is also the best food source of a group of compounds called catechins. In test tubes, catechins are more powerful than Vitamins C and E in halting oxidative damage to cells and appear to have other disease-fighting properties.

Tea, it does a body good

DAAN — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:26:47 +0000

Tea offers amazing taste and tremendous health benefits; it’s an important ingredients to long life!

for more than 5,000 years. Modern research is now confirming tea’s wide range of health benefits such as antioxidant protection, cardiovascular and cellular health, metabolism and energy levels. The basis of these benefits is the phytonutrient-rich leaves, which naturally contain many health-positive characteristics, including polyphenols (especially EGCG), L-theanine and caffeine.

Tea TrioTM, as researched by www.finlandiapharmacyonline.com, is a synergistic combination of three of the world’s most health-beneficial teas: Organic White Tea, Organic Green Tea from minimally processed Camellia leaves, and Organic Black Tea derived from a delicate fermentation process. Cautiously sourced and blended to create a synergistic effect, Tea Trio provides broader antioxidant protection and more balanced range of naturally health-promoting tea bioactive than one or two teas alone.

Tea Trio’s synergistic three-tea blend naturally provides three essential benefits: Increased metabolism* Broad range antioxidant protection to support cardiovascular health, cellular function and longevity* Increased energy and alertness.

Green tea good for your vision

DAAN — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:17:38 +0000

We all know that drinking green tea is good for you; now there’s another benefit-it may be good for your eyes too!

Feb. 18, 2010 — Researchers say the compounds responsible for many of the health benefits of green tea are capable of penetrating the tissues of the eyes and have antioxidant activity there.

Green tea has been touted for a number of health benefits, such as fighting heart disease and cancer, thanks to its high concentration of disease-fighting antioxidants called catechins.

Researchers say catechins are among a number of antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein, and zeaxanthin, thought to help protect the delicate tissues of the eye from glaucoma and other eye diseases. But until now it wasn’t known if the catechins in green tea were capable of being absorbed into the tissues of the eye.

Another Health Benefit of Green Tea
In the study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers fed laboratory rats green tea extract and then analyzed their eye tissues.

The results showed that different parts of the eye absorbed varying amounts of catechins. The area with the highest concentration of catechins was the retina, which is the light-sensing tissue that lines the back of the eye. The area with the least absorption of catechins was the cornea, which is the clear, outer layer of the eye.

The study also showed that a measure of antioxidant activity lasted for up to 20 hours after the drinking green tea extract.

Researcher Kai On Chu of the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and colleagues say that their findings suggest that drinking green tea could be protective of the eyes. Further studies, however, will be needed to confirm a protective effect in humans.

Cooling teas

DAAN — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:04:44 +0000

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, you need to balance foods that produce (such as fried or barbecued foods), with foods that have a cooling effect. Here’s a good article about cooling teas.

As you go about your last-minute Chinese New Year shopping, it might be a good idea to stop by a Chinese medical hall for some cooling herbal tea.

Ms Jin Jinhua, a consultant acupuncturist at Raffles Chinese Medicine, said that in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), there must be a balance of yin (cooling) and yang (heaty) for good health.

As you eat and drink during the festive season, watch out for food that has been baked, barbecued or fried as the Chinese believe they will give rise to excess heat in one’s body.

This is why many people drink cooling herbal teas like ginseng tea or ling yang tea (antelope’s horn tea).

This is because they believe it will help to reduce and soothe symptoms such as a dry throat, cough and constipation, all of which are caused by excess heat, said Mr Tan Chong Siew, a TCM physician who works at Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinics in Rivervale Mall, Tiong Bahru Plaza and Sembawang Way.

Ms Seah Ai Wei, a TCM physician at Thomson Chinese Medicine, said American ginseng tea is suitable for those who work long hours and suffer from heaty symptoms that include dry mouth, sore throat and acne breakouts.

Luo han guo tea or monk’s fruit tea also helps soothe sore throats and is believed to have the added benefit of nourishing the lungs.

‘Teachers and salesmen, who often have to talk a lot, should drink this,’ said

Ms Seah. She added that herbal teas can be taken on a daily basis for preventive or well-being purposes.

Green tea can slow cancer tumor

DAAN — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:37:49 +0000

Good news for coffee and green tea drinkers! A recent study has found that regular consumption of coffee and green tea can effectively slow the growth of brian cancer tumors.

A group of scientists has said that caffeine found in coffee and green tea could effectively slow the growth of brain cancer tumours.

According to the researchers at the (South) Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), animal test results showed regular caffeine found in coffee and green tea to have strongly repressed the growth of inositol trisphosphate receptor (IP3R) closely linked to glioblastoma, which is the most common and aggressive type of primary brain tumour found in human
.

The research team, comprising of scientists from Seoul National University, Gyeongsang National University, and Emory University in Atlanta, said that calcium plays a primary role in spreading glioblastoma tumour cells in humans, and that IP3R directly contributes to the amount of calcium released.

They discovered a sub-type of IP3R, or IP3R3, to be very active among brain cancer patients and that caffeine stymies the spread of such compounds, resulting in less tumour growth in the brain and blocks cancer cells from spreading to other parts of the body, reports Xinhua.

“This is the first type of discovery showing caffeine to have an inhibitive effect on the growth of glioblastoma, and thus, we expect it to have monumental impact on related studies,” said Lee Chang-joon, who led the study.

The researchers said that the amounts of caffeine used in the animal tests were somewhere in the range of two to five cups of coffee or green tea consumed on average by humans per day.

Green tea may reduce lung cancer in smokers

DAAN — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:23:09 +0000

More benefits of drinking green tea have been revealed in a recent study; it may reduce lung cancer even for smokers.

For thousands of years, the people of China, Japan, India, and Thailand have consumed green tea and used it medicinally to treat everything from headaches to flatulence. In fact, the ancient Chinese proverb, “better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one,” gives us an idea of how much they believed in its curative abilities. Over the past few decades, however, research in both Asia and the West has begun providing scientific evidence of green tea’s numerous health benefits.

As a whole, studies indicate that regular consumption of green tea may slow or prevent conditions including high cholesterol, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, impaired immune disease and liver disease. In addition, some studies have indicated green tea may have cancer-fighting properties, lowering the rate of gastric, esophageal, and mouth cancers. And in a conference this week sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), researchers reported that Taiwanese smokers who consumed one cup of green tea each day significantly reduced their chances of developing lung cancer.

For their study, Dr. I-Hsin Lin, of Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan, and her colleagues recruited 170 people with lung cancer and 340 healthy patients as controls. The participants completed questionnaires regarding their lifestyle habits, including how much they smoked, how much green tea they drank, their dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, cooking practices and family history of lung cancer. They also underwent genotyping on insulin-like growth factors: IGF1, IGF2, and IGFBP3, all of which have been reported to be associated with cancer risk.

The results showed that both smokers and non-smokers who did not drink green tea were 5 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared to those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day. Smokers who did not drink green tea at all were more than 12 times more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day. However, the protection was greatest for those carrying certain genes. Green tea drinkers, whether smokers or non-smokers, with non-susceptible IGF1 (CA)19/(CA)19 and (CA)19/X genotypes reported a 66 percent reduction in lung cancer risk compared with green tea drinkers carrying the IGF1 X/X genotype.

Green tea and prostate cancer

DAAN — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:37:54 +0000

Yet another benefit of drinking green tea regularly; it could delay the onset of prostate cancer.

Active compounds in green tea may slow down the progression of prostate cancer, researchers reported on Friday.

Capsules made using green tea extracts called polyphenols lowered levels of proteins that tumors use to grow, the researchers found.

Made by Polyphenon Pharma, the capsules called Polyphenon E contain epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG, a green tea extract that has antioxidant properties.

Jim Cardelli of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and colleagues tested 26 prostate cancer patients, aged from 41 to 68.

Each took four Polyphenon E capsules a day — equivalent to drinking 12 cups of green tea — for about a month before they had their prostates removed.

Blood tests showed levels of three proteins associated with the growth and spread of prostate cancer fell. Hepatocyte growth factor or HGF fell 18.9 percent on average, vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF fell by 9.9 percent and prostate specific antigen PSA fell by 10.4 percent, they reported in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

HGF and VEGF are produced when tumors spread and some patients showed “significant” reduction levels of more than 30 percent, Cardelli said.

Few side effects were reported and liver function of the patients remained normal.

“It’s still in an early stage. Green tea can keep cancer from growing very fast, but it may not be able to shrink tumors,” Cardelli said in a telephone interview.

Calming tea for Christmas eve

DAAN — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:18:50 +0000

How tea can help you stay calm and relaxed on Christmas eve.

Christmas Eve and there is so much to do. Gifts must be wrapped, shopping is not done, people are coming in town, kids are way too excited and had one too many chocolate Santa’s to eat and you are on your last nerve, what do you do?

There are a variety of calming herbs and teas that can help you relax. Chamomile tea is a great way to calm the nerves. Glycine, an amino acid in chamomile, acts a nerve relaxant. It taste great and add a little peppermint or mint to give it a holiday touch. Kids love the taste of this wonderful tea as well and can be calming. Make it iced with a few cranberries or fruit floating on top.

Passionflower tea has anti-anxiety properties and can help sooth and calm. It can help relax muscles, improve blood circulation and help with headaches. Ashwagandha Tea is good for calming the nerves and helping with stress and nervous exhaustion. It helps clear the mind which can help improve memory because it does not feel cluttered. It is a very good calming tea.

Skullcap tea is not only good for calming nerves it can help women who have PMS. This wonderful tea can help relax tense muscles and even help with muscle spasms. It also helps reduce irritability. Mint teas have a wonderful aroma and a warm cup can help sooth and calm nerves.

Ginseng tea is good for a variety of reasons. It helps clear mental exhaustion which is bound to happen over the holiday season and can almost immediately reduce stress. In addition, this wonderful tea can help build your immune system, helps with mental and physical fatigue, and has an overall calming effect. Ginseng tea has many health benefits as well. So pour yourself a nice warm cup, and maybe pick up a few packages to give as calming gifts.

Of course valerian tea is wonderful for tension, stress, anxiety and nerves. Though not the greatest tasting tea, flavors can be added to this to make it taste a little more pleasing. If you have a difficult time sleeping, this teas will definitely do the trick.

Green tea may lessen depression

DAAN — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:47:29 +0000

A recent study have found that regular green tea intake to be effective in fighting depression.

DAAN carries an extensive selection of quality tea products.

ELDERLY people who drink several cups of green tea a day were less likely to suffer from depression, probably due to a “feel good” chemical found in this type of tea, Japanese researchers said.

Several studies have linked drinking green tea to lessening psychological problems and Dr Kaijun Niu, of Tohoku University Graduate School, and colleagues found men and women aged 70 and older who drank four or more cups of green tea daily were 44 per cent less likely to have symptoms of depression.

Green tea is widely consumed in many Asian countries, including China and Japan.

Dr Niu and the team investigated 1058 relatively healthy elderly men and women.

About 34 per cent of the men and 39 per cent of the women had symptoms of depression, according to the study that was published in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A total of 488 participants said they drank four or more cups of green tea a day, 284 said they downed two to three cups daily and the rest reported having one or fewer cups daily.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
According to the researchers, the apparent effect of drinking more green tea on alleviating symptoms of depression did not fade after they factored in social and economic status, gender, diet, history of medical problems and use of antidepressants.

By contrast, there was no association between consumption of black or oolong tea, or coffee, and lower symptoms of depression.