Green tea and prostate cancer

Here's an article, from Forbes (of all place), about another study that found that green tea may curb prostate cancer in men.

In the study, conducted at the University of Parma in Italy, researchers held a trial with two groups of men, both with a pre-cancerous condition that normally progresses to cancer it 30% of men. One group was given a placebo to take, whereas the second group was given 600 milligrams of green tea catechins a day, "equivalent to 12-15 cups of green tea infusion, that is about two times the average intake in Asian countries."

Nine out of the 30 men given the placebo group developed full-blown prostate cancer, a rate of 30%. But only 1 man in the gren-tea group developed cancer, a rate of only 3%. In other words only one-tenth the rate of those who didn't drink green tea.

Said the scientist in charge of the study: "To our knowledge, this is the first study showing that [green tea catechins] have potent in vivo chemoprevention activity for human prostate cancer." He also said that a collaborative study involving U.S. and Italian researchers on the effect of green tea on breast and colon cancer rates is in the works.

—Mellow Monk

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Green tea and diabetes: An article from a scientific journal

Every time I write a posting about an article exalting the virtues of green tea, I say to myself, "Alright, I'm writing a lot of postings about articles like this. Time to write about something else." Then, sure enough, I run across yet another such article that's so compelling, I just can't resist. So here it is.

The first paragraph of the article, from a website called SciScoop.com, ends thus:

[Tea] could provide a simple and inexpensive way of preventing diabetes and its ensuing complications, including cataracts.

The article refers to research findings published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. In this research, conducted at the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, researchers found that rats fed green tea had decreased glucose levels and significantly less cataract formation compared to a control group. This difference is probably because high levels of glucose "accelerate diabetic complications such as cataracts."

This is similar to what I reported in the blog posting Dr. Nicholas Perricone on green tea (from The Oprah Winfrey Show).

Someday, perhaps, scientists will find some afflication that green tea doesn't help prevent.

—Mellow Monk

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