One of the great things about writing about cancer and natural health and especially supplements like green tea is that your readers help you do your fact finding. Over the years I have received a number of reader comments like these:
"Hi, Robert. You really need to mention green tea as a treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I was diagnosed with NHL in 2001. Even after with six months of chemo, my white count stayed at 57,000 or higher. When my white count reached 160,000 in 2006, my doctor urged me to take chemo again, but I decided to try green tea instead. I started taking 6 capsules and 2 lozenges every day, and in six months my white count was down to 12,000."
"I was diagnosed with CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) in 2004. At the time, my white count was 24,000, so I decided to try changing my diet before resorting to chemotherapy. I stopped drinking six cups of coffee a day and started drinking 6 cups of green tea. I started eating lots of blueberries and dark-green leafy vegetables. My dessert after every meal is applesauce followed by a glass of blackberry wine. At the end of 2005 my white blood count (WBC) was down to 19,000, and at my checkup in March 2009 my WBC was a healthy 8850. Shouldn't everybody with NHL be doing this?"
These two readers are a great example of how ordinary people can make their own discoveries that precede the announcements of mainstream science. In June 2009, researchers at the Mayo Clinic announced research found that the epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in this ubiquitous beverage had beneficial effects in study volunteers who had chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
CLL typically occurs in adults 50 and older, and progresses much more slowly than other kinds of leukemia. In the Mayo Clinic Study, 33 adults with CLL received eight doses of a proprietary formulation of EGCGs called Polyphenon E. The volunteers took from 400 to 2,000 mg of Polyphenon E twice a day for a month. These doses correspond to drinking 8 cups of tea a day up to drinking 40 cups of tea a day.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, noted that the higher doses helped decrease white blood counts in one-third of those studied. Taking the supplement also seemed to reduce swelling in the lymph nodes. The study is continuing with all volunteers now receiving 4,000 mg of EGCGs every day.
The benefits of EGCGs have been studied for many other forms of cancer. The Mayo Clinic researchers began their study of green tea with four patients who had B-cell lymphoma. Three of these patients experienced significant improvement. Also in June 2009, James A. Cardelli, director of basic and translational research in the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center at LSU University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport, announced that Polyphenon E product produced slower progression of prostate cancer. Men taking 600 mg of the product every day for 30 days had up to 30 per lower levels of the cancer markers PSA (prostate specific antigen), HGF (hepatocyte growth factor), and VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor).
Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles report that green tea EGCGs seem to have the capacity prevent the spread of lung cancer. In their laboratory studies, the scientists found that the green tea compounds make tumor cells "stickier" so they cannot escape into the bloodstream. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research have found that green tea EGCGs stop the proliferation of cervical cancer cells. Laboratory studies also find that the green tea compounds inhibit the formation of metastatic tumors in the liver and reduces the growth of breast cancers.
As wonderful as these findings are, they are not absolute proof that green tea cures any kind of cancer. Green tea seems to work with good diet, other nutritional supplements, and conventional medical care to make them work better. Green tea EGCGs do not interfere with conventional treatments, however, and side effects are extremely rare.
by Robert Rister
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