No protection from breast cancer with green tea?

No protection against breast cancer through green tea: Green tea is by no means harmful and has proven to be a valuable health prophylaxis in many areas.

(29.10.2010) Green tea offers no protection against breast cancer. In a Japanese long-term study, the researchers found that despite the multiple proven anti-carcinogenic properties of green tea, this even at a daily consumption of more than ten cups does not reduce the risk of disease. The scientists at the National Cancer Center in Tokyo had observed nearly 54,000 women over a five-year period and recorded tea consumption and breast cancer.

No reduction in breast cancer risk
„Drinking green tea, regardless of the type of tea and the amount consumed, is unlikely to reduce the risk of breast cancer“, said Motoki Iwasaki of the National Cancer Center in Tokyo at the current publication of the results in the online journal „Breast Cancer Research“. Thus, the results of previous studies, which had found in animal experiments and in cell cultures, a cancer-inhibiting effect of various ingredients of green tea, in the study of 53 793 Japanese women could not be confirmed. Motoki Iwasaki and colleagues have based on the data from the Japan Public Health Center study from 1990 to 1994 and the subsequent follow-up an evaluation of the old study results with its own five-year study, which in addition queried the Teekonsum the two varieties, Sencha and Bancha / Genmaicha , connected. They came to the conclusion that 581 women have had breast cancer since the time of the baseline study, and that on average 13.6 years after the first examination.

Breast cancer risk independent of tea consumption
The tea consumption of the women was very different and varied across a wide spectrum. While about twelve percent of respondents drank less than one cup of green tea per week, 27 percent said they consumed at least five cups a day. A different breast cancer risk, however, did not result. Even women who drank more than ten cups of green tea per day were at the same risk of developing breast cancer, the Japanese scientists said in their current release. The fact that relatively few women develop breast cancer in Asian countries compared to Western industrial nations can not be attributed to the consumption of tea. For example, green tea contains a great deal of catechins, which on the one hand act as antioxidants and on the other hand have anti-cancer and other health-promoting properties. When drinking green tea, however, no effect on the risk of breast cancer is detectable, the researchers write Motoki Iwasaki.

Green tea promotes good health
However, even if an effect on breast cancer risk is undetectable, this should not deter women from regularly drinking green tea. In the so-called Ohsaki study, which lasted for more than 11 years and involved 40,530 adults aged 40 to 79, positive cardiovascular properties and a corresponding life-prolonging effect of green tea were clearly demonstrated. For example, the death rate for male test takers who drank at least five cups of green tea a day fell by 12 percent, and that of women by 23 percent. In particular, the deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases were significantly reduced - in women by nine percent (31 percent compared to 22 percent). In addition, the polyphenols and fluorides contained in green tea lowered the risk of dental caries.

Green tea also has a prophylactic effect against diabetic nephropathy, a kidney disease caused by diabetes mellitus, and experts believe that the polyphenols contained in the green tea absorb free radicals and thus reduce the attachment of glucose to the body's own proteins, effectively protecting the kidney be. In addition, the Egyptian scientist Dr. Mervat Kassem discovered that green tea significantly boosts the effects of antibiotics and even addresses some of the originally resistant germs, with the ingestion of the green tea again on antibiotics. Last but not least, green tea should also have a preventive effect on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate prevents the formation of amyloid fibrils, which are responsible for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. (29.10.2010)

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