NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2006
Studies: Green Tea May Help Prolong Life
Senay: Research Also Shows Benefits For Skin, Few Drawbacks
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Play CBS Video Video Green Tea Goodness Dr. Emily Senay discusses the health and healing benefits linked to green tea with Hannah Storm.
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Dr. Emily Senay on The Early Show Monday, saying new studies confirm the health benefits of drinking green tea. (CBS/The Early Show)
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Video Archive Eye On Health CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook examines various health issues and treatments.
She said a German study found that green tea extracts could help people with skin damaged from radiation therapy.
"So they actually took some green tea and black tea," Dr. Senay told co-anchor Hannah Storm. "They used hot water, obviously. Took out extract, filtered it and applied it to the skin for about 10 minutes at a time, three times a day, green tea and black tea."
Dr. Senay said the German researchers, who conducted the study on only 60 people, found that after 16 days, the people who applied the green tea extract, saw some skin improvement. The people who used black tea also saw improvement after about 22 days, but the green tea was more effective.
"The thinking is that green tea contains polyphenyls, black tea does as well but green tea may contain more," she said. "These are anti-oxidants that we know can reduce inflammation and fight off infection. Of course, it's so difficult to isolate just one component of foods as we've learned over time. It may be other things inside tea we just don't know about yet that could contribute to this benefit."
Researchers in Japan conducted a study of 40,000 people ages 40-79. They followed people over 11 years and found that people who consume five or more cups of green tea a day, were 16 percent less likely to die from anything during that time compared to people who drink one cup a day.
"You know, I think the big surprise for researchers who look at this is that it was really heart disease," Dr. Senay said. "It was heart disease, really, the thing that stood out here — 26 percent lower risk of heart disease, but there was a gender difference. The women did better drinking green tea: 31 percent reduction compared to the men, only 22 percent."
Dr. Senay said that many of the men who participated in the study were more likely to smoke than women, which cancels out the benefit of the green tea.
Unfortunately, she said the study didn't determine if green tea helps fight or prevent cancer. Still, Dr. Senay said there is no significant downside to drinking it.
"It does have a vitamins in it — vitamin K, which may make things like blood thinners less effective, but by and large there's really no drawback," she said.
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- So basically green tea is good, but green tea extract is especially good... because it's equivalent to 5-20 glasses of green tea. I found a site that compared green tea extracts - reviewgreentea.com. I've been drinking green tea for most of my life, and prefer it to coffee and soda.
- Reply to this comment
- "These are anti-oxidants that we know can reduce inflammation and fight off infection. Of course, it's so difficult to isolate just one component of foods as we've learned over time. It may be other things inside tea we just don't know about yet that could contribute to this benefit."
A news story? It sounds like some quack medicine. Of course you could isolate the agent if it really had all these health benefits. Pharmaceutical companies spend billions each year trying to come up with these things,o r study the exisitng things, and they extract all kinds of stuff from existing plants.
How come none of these magic anti-oxidants that fight off infections are for sale? One would think it would be a mircale drug, the most amazing miracle drug of the new century, if some substance in green tea could fight off infections, boy, that's good for everything, isn't it. It cures AIDS even, doesn't it. Anything that is an infection, miracle cure, how exciting, why isn't this the front-page news for all newspapers on earth today? - Reply to this comment
- RE: "Researchers in Japan... found that people who consume five or more cups of green tea a day, were 16 percent less likely to die from anything during that time compared to people who drink one cup a day."
People who drink that much green tea a day may have other lifestyle habits that also make for longer life. They may have daily practices that make for moderation and tranquility.
Of course the researchers probably knew that and factored it out. - Reply to this comment
