James Newman4
Member
13 messages
joined Jun 2005
So, I guess the World Health Organization suggests sipping on at least one cup of green tea a day, and honestly, it seems like a ton of people are swapping out their usual morning coffee for green tea lately, claiming they actually feel a bit different health-wise.
Basically, —this green tea plant—is part of the Tea family. In medical circles, it’s known as Folia Theae, and it's basically this massive powerhouse of an antioxidant, antiviral, anticancer, antitumor, anti-atherosclerotic, antiseptic, antibacterial, analgesic, detoxifying, digestive, diuretic, galactogenic, and cardiotonic agent.
The really heavy-hitting medicinal stuff in the tea comes from these flavonoid compounds, like catechins, flavonols, and flavones. Science says these things are crazy strong natural antioxidants that fight off cancer and hardening of the arteries. You know how those free radicals floating around in the environment can cause all sorts of chaos, damaging your DNA and cell membranes? That's what leads to all kinds of issues, like MS or autoimmune diseases, I suppose. Apparently, these flavonoid compounds are even more effective against free radicals than Vitamin C or Vitamin E. Studies show that once you drink it, you see this antioxidant activity pop up in your blood, and it's most noticeable after having green tea.
Since it's such a good antioxidant, green tea extract is pretty handy if you're trying to slow down skin aging. People usually take it as a drink, but it also shows up in skincare products like protective creams. Plus, nowadays you can find all these healthy drinks packed with green or black tea extract, and you can even toss these extracts into other foods to make them "health food," if that's even a thing.
It might be worth mentioning too, though I don't know, that drinking green tea can actually help smokers quit.
Nowadays, the whole "preventative health" vibe is catching on with pretty much everyone who's somewhat informed about what's going on in the world. Everyone's asking the same questions: which medicinal plants should we use for prevention, or what kind of supplements—you know, dietary supplements—are actually worth it for people trying to stay healthy naturally.
Most modern Americans just use green tea as a solid stimulant to help them focus at work without losing their minds, while also getting that wide range of healing benefits. The big players in green tea are caffeine and catechins. Those catechins—specifically epigallocatechin, because research shows that catechins, along with polyphenols and bioflavonoids, have the strongest anticancer effects—protect your cells from those nasty free radicals. They act as powerful antioxidants (kind of cytostatic and cytotoxic) and even stop the development of the urokinase enzyme—which is that protein kinase thing that breaks down living cell proteins to let cancer cells move in and feed themselves—basically helping to kill off cancer cells.
Looking at traditional Eastern medicine practices
Western medicine actually leans on that Eastern wisdom quite a bit, recommending green tea for some pretty heavy stuff—like cancer, tumors, painful conditions, various wounds, skin burns, colds, flu, dysentery, different types of poisoning, high cholesterol, managing blood pressure, diabetes, edema, epilepsy, skin rashes, fevers, headaches, bleeding, malaria, food poisoning, amoebic dysentery, and intestinal infections.
What's actually inside it:
Green tea is loaded with good stuff: caffeine and theine (which helps with fatigue and acts as a diuretic), theobromine, theophylline, trehalose, polysaccharides, essential oils, catechins (which help lower cancer risk, shrink tumors, reduce mutations, fight oxygen oxidation, lower cholesterol, and kill bacteria), Vitamin C (for stress and overall strength), the B-vitamin complex, and Vitamin E (for that antioxidant boost).