Skip to main content

What are the Effects of Green Tea on Chemotherapy



Green tea and chemotherapy have long been viewed in various spheres as potential weapons against cancer. While green tea’s prospective abilities in preventing and even combating cancer have gained a certain traction among practitioners of natural and herbal healing, the effectiveness of chemotherapy against cancer has long gained the acceptance and approval of the scientific medical healing field.
But can these two seemingly diverse agents possess points of convergence that may make the war against malignant neoplasm even more potent and effective? Or do they essentially operate in their own respective areas, working their so-called magic independently of each other?
Green tea comes from the lightly fermented leaves of the tea plant camellia sinensis. It is known to possess high levels of powerful antioxidants called polyphenols. Antioxidants are materials that help fight free radicals – compounds in the body that alter cells, damage DNA, and give rise to abnormal growth of tumors that lead to cancer. EGCG or epigallocatechin-gallate is the most important polyphenol in the brew and is believed to help protect against cancer development by aiding the self-destruction of these cells, and by affecting enzymes and the communications between cells, thereby slowing the growth and multiplication of cancerous cells.
On the other hand, chemotherapy refers to a standardized regimen of cancer treatment involving either a single neo-plastic drug or a combination or cocktail of such drugs. Active agents in these drugs act by killing cells that divide and replicate rapidly. However, this method also involves harming cells that divide rapidly even under normal circumstances. This results in the most common side effects of chemotherapy: the decreased production of blood cells, the weakened state of the immune system, the inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract, and the loss of hair.
Taken hand-in-hand, do green tea and chemotherapy complement each other in the crusade against their common enemy? Well, the findings have decidedly been mixed.
A study conducted on mice by the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Shizuoka in Japan showed that the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin against carcinoma tumors appeared to have more than doubled when green tea was used as an adjunct. The tumors showed a higher concentration of the doxorubicin in the tumor tissue when the mice ingested the tea.
Interestingly, only the cancerous tissue reflected a higher concentration of the drug as a result of the addition of the tea and not the normal ones. This may suggest promising implications on the issue of side effects as it implies that the drug’s side effects may not increase when used in tandem with the green tea.

Another study showed that the chemotherapy drug adriamycin was likewise found to be more effective at treating ovarian sarcoma when it was paired with green tea. The mice in this study became very responsive to the treatment when they were given the brew alongside the adriamycin while another group of mice not given the tea proved unresponsive.
However, another research study involving a different chemotherapy drug yielded a different result.
Laboratory and live mice experiments undertaken by the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine found that taking green tea alongside the chemotherapy drug bortezomib against multiple myeloma and the malignant brain tumor glioblastoma showed that the antioxidants in the tea may possibly negate and cancel out the therapeutic effects of the bortezomib.
The scientists subsequently found that the boronic acid component in bortezomib allowed the EGCG to latch on directly to the drug’s molecules, thereby inhibiting the anti-cancer actions of both the chemotherapy agent and the green tea compound. The effect of this is that instead of killing more cancer cells, the treatment allowed almost  all of them to survive and multiply.
The researchers in this study consequently concluded that “the current evidence is sufficient enough to strongly urge patients undergoing bortezomib therapy to abstain from consuming green tea products, in particular the widely available, highly concentrated green tea and EGCG products that are sold in liquid or capsule form.”
There have likewise been reports of green tea extracts affecting a gene in prostate cancer cells that may make them less responsive to chemotherapy drugs.
However, the same scientists hastened to add that the same adverse reaction did not occur when EGCG was combined with several other non-boronic, acid-based proteasome inhibitors, including the HIV treatment nelfinavir or Viracept.
It is worthwhile to note that these studies have so far only been conducted on mice and in laboratory experiments. These results have not yet been confirmed in studies on people. As with many other early results, further research is warranted.
It may be gleaned from these divergent findings that green tea appears to have different interactive effects with certain specific chemotherapy drugs. Green tea appears to complement the therapeutic effects of some anti-cancer drugs while negating and being adverse to those of other anti-cancer medication. It is for this very reason that individuals undergoing chemotherapy treatment ought to talk to their  physicians before drinking green tea or taking tea extracts.
The benefits of tea are discussed at TeaBenefits.com, your online guide to the health properties of “nature’s wonder drug”.
Are you interested in a particular type of tea, we tell you its healing properties. Do you have an ailment? We’ll tell you what tea may be used for its treatment.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Effects of Adding Sugar to Green Tea When Losing Weight

Although green tea has been enjoyed as a beverage for thousands of years, it has seen a resurgence in popularity during the 1990s and 2000s as a weight loss supplement. Sometimes aggressive charged as a "miracle weight loss East", this tea can help support your weight loss efforts. However, it may be bitter - a fact that leads some to want to lighten the flavor with added sugar. The basics of weight loss No matter what methods you use to lose weight, pounds loss is based on a physiological fact unique. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you burn more than you eat, you lose weight. You can create the right caloric imbalance by reducing the calories you take and / or increasing those that you put on. Green tea may play a role on both sides of the equation. Green tea contains two major types of compounds that help lose weight. Stimulants, primarily caffeine to give you energy and cause your body's metabolism to burn calories faster. In this way

Can You Cure Insomnia with Green Tea

Do you need a cure for insomnia ? Well, add "insomnia cure" to green tea's ever growing list of health benefits. I know, the conventional wisdom is that since green tea contains caffeine then it should be avoided if you have insomnia. The good news is that if you drink a few cups of regular green tea throughout the day and decaffeinated green tea at night, this can have a significant impact on whether or not you fall asleep at night. Insomnia is a sleeping disorder where a person finds it hard to fall asleep, staying asleep, or both. As a result, an insomniac (person with insomnia) will get too little and poor-quality. Insomnia can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, and lack of energy in performing tasks. There are several factors that can cause insomnia, and one of which is consuming too much green tea, more than 10 cups to be exact, in a day. Antioxidants & Ingredients of Green Tea Green tea comes from a hardy shrub called the Camellia sinensis that bel

How to Choose the Best Green Tea From Market

By now you're probably familiar with the incredible array of health benefits of green tea has to offer. Although you green tea in bottles to buy, the health benefits or pre-prepared, bottled green tea significantly less due to the lower levels of catechins. To ensure you receive the maximum health benefits of green tea gets brewing your own green tea at home is the best option from a health standpoint. You can also realize significant cost savings brew loose, fresh green tea leaves in your own kitchen. If you decide to make your own green tea to brew, how can you be sure that you get fresh green tea leaves that will give you the best taste? While some people buy loose green tea leaves online, you can not guarantee you the freshest, highest quality product you purchase by mail or by computer. If you have a local tea or coffee shop near you, visit and spend some time breathing in the scent of fresh green tea leaves to determine their scent. Another place to find loose leaf, f