Gain Health Benefits From Green Tea
Gain HealthBenefits From Green Tea - Good news for green tea drinkers! A Japanese
study involving thousands of subjects has found that regular drinkers gain
health benefits from green tea, appearing to show less age related disability
than those who don't enjoy the beverage.
The work examined the question - do
people who drink this variety of tea have a reduced risk of becoming frail and
disabled as the years pass?
Researchers
studied nearly 14,000 Japanese adults, all 65 or older, and followed them for a
period of three years. Information on tea consumption as well as other
lifestyle factors was collected using a questionnaire.
Researchers
found that those who drunk the highest amount of tea had the smallest risk of
being identified with "functional disability" - problems with
completing daily activities or normal functions like bathing or getting
dressed.
Green tea
drinkers also had healthier diets (more fish veggies and fruit), plus higher
levels of education, lower rates of smoking, fewer strokes and heart attacks as
well as better mental sharpness. They were also more likely to be socially
active and thus had more family and friends as support systems in their lives.
Even after all
other risk factors for disability were taken into account; green tea was still
linked with a reduced risk of age related disability.
Subjects who had at least
5 cups per day were a 30% less likely to have disabilities compared to those
who took in less than one cup a day. Those who drank 3 to 4 cups of this
variety of tea each day had a 25% lower risk of age related disability.
The Chinese have
known about the medicinal benefits of green tea for thousands of years. Experts
now know that this tea has powerful antioxidants (particularly epigallocatechin
gallate, or EGCG for short) that help to hold off cell damage which can result
in disease.
The delicious
tasting drink has been studied by experts for its effect on cholesterol numbers
and the risks of certain cancers, but thus far, results on green tea's
effectiveness have been mixed.
And while the researchers on this study cannot
explain why this tea might provide a protective effect against disability, they
do cite a recent study that discovered green tea extracts appeared to build leg
muscle strength for older women.
And unlike the
black and oolong tea varieties, green leaves are steamed, not fermented, which
keeps the EGCG from being oxidized and turned into compounds that aren't nearly
as effective.
Small amounts of
green tea are considered safe for most people, it does contain caffeine and a
small amount of vitamin K.
This means that the beverage could interfere with
medications that keep blood from clotting. Talk with your own doctor before
adding this beverage to your diet - once you get the okay you can enjoy the
health benefits from green tea by drinking it hot, warm, iced or mixed with
other drinks.