Drinking Green Tea May Prevent Lung Cancer Even in Smokers
Over the past few months, we’ve read a lot about studies involving green tea and cancer. Most of these studies seemed to involve using green tea extract to slow or even reverse the progress of certain cancers. Now comes news from a study in Taiwan that indicates that drinking green tea might prevent lung cancer even in people who smoke.
A student at the Graduate School of Public Hygiene at Chung Shan Medical University, Lin Yi-hsin, performed the study. Her research concerned the effectiveness of tea on the prevention of lung cancer in people who smoke. To that end, she involved in her study 500 people, 170 of whom had lung cancer. Her findings are both surprising and hopeful when it comes to battling lung cancer.
Results of the study indicated that those who did not drink green tea were five times more likely to develop lung cancer. Those who did not drink green tea and smoked were 13 times more likely to develop lung cancer. According to her supervising faculty member, Professor Wong Jui-hung, this is because green tea can check the growth of the hormone that stimulates the growth of lung cancer cells.
Does this mean that you can go ahead, light up, and not worry about lung cancer if you drink green tea? Not according to Norman Edelman, who is the chief medical officer of the American Lung Association. Edelman feels that smokers shouldn’t use green tea as an excuse to keep smoking. Other factors such as genetics also play a part in whether or not a person is likely to contract lung cancer.
What is certain is that the antioxidants in tea are in some way related to slowing the growth of many types of cancer cells. Scientists still has a long way to go before they can conclusively know what that connection is. Regardless of what the ultimate result of research is, it makes sense that green tea alone cannot prevent or cure cancer. We must all take proper care of our health and drinking green tea is just one part of that plan.
brewed on Feb 5th, 2010
This article hasn't been commented yet.
Write a comment