As a “boring” Teetotaler that is surely not the life of any party, this absence of excitement luckily possesses some wonderful health benefits of tea drinking… especially Green Tea … which has some strong clinical evidence of its truly amazing impact on physical, cognitive and emotional Wellness.

CANCER
Research on the benefits of green tea and cancer prevention is still in early stages, but the results are promising. Researchers suspect that polyphenols in green tea help kill cancer cells and stop their progression, an important role to prevent various cancers.

In a study of 472 women with breast cancer, those who drank the most green tea experienced the least spread of the disease. Researchers also found that women in the early stages of breast cancer who drank at least five cups of green tea every day during their diagnoses were less likely to have the disease recur after the completed treatment.

In looking at more than 35,000 women in the Iowa Women’s Health study, those who drank two or more cups of tea a day were almost 30 percent less likely to develop colon cancer than those who rarely drank tea.

One Chinese study found that men who drank more than three cups of tea a day reduced their risk of prostate cancer by 70 percent. In another study funded by the National Institute of Health, 79 men with prostate cancer were told to either drink 6 cups of green tea a day or 6 cups of water. After 3 to 8 weeks, the levels of prostate-specific antigen, a protein that may indicate cancer, were lower in the men who drank green tea than those who drank water. A hormonal  indicator of inflammation, linked to cancer growth, was also lower in the men who drank the green tea.

In skin cancer studies, lab animals that were given green tea developed 1/10th as many tumors as animals that were given water. The EGCC in green tea inhibits the production of urokinase, an enzyme that cancer cells need in order to grow. It also seems to stimulate the process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, in cancer cells. Pair your green tea with these

HEART HEALTH
Green tea contains significant amounts of flavonoids, antioxidants that protect against heart disease by slowing the breakdown of LDL cholesterol, preventing blood clots, and improving blood vessel function. The benefits of green tea also include associations with lower cholesterol and lower rates of artery blockages. People who drink a cup or two a day have a 46 percent lower risk of developing narrowed arteries.
Upping that to three cups a day lowers the risk of having a heart attack by 43 percent and of dying from a heart attack by 70 percent. It can even help prevent a second heart attack. In a study of 1,900 patients recovering from heart attacks at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the death rate among patients who drank at least two cups of tea a day was 44 percent lower than among non-tea drinkers.

ARTHRITIS
To cut down on aches and pains, try to sip four cups of green tea a day. The tea contains quercetin, a chemical compound that acts as a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. In a recent study conducted at Case Western Reserve University, researchers gave mice the equivalent of four cups of green tea a day, then gave them a substance that would normally produce rheumatoid arthritis. The tea-drinking mice were far less likely to develop arthritis than mice that drank water.

According to the Iowa Women’s Health Study, women who drank more than three cups of tea a day were 60 percent less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than non-tea drinkers. Other research has found that tea’s polyphenols—antioxidant properties—are also anti-inflammatory and improve arthritis-related immune responses.

BRAIN FUNCTION
Researchers from the Netherlands confirmed in a recent study that two green tea compounds, L-theanine and caffeine, can significantly boost levels of attention and alertness, building on what is already known about the brain benefits of green tea. The drink is less likely to make you jittery and anxious than other energy-boosting drinks, because it contains lower levels of caffeine than other teas or coffee.
In another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers discovered that drinking just one cup of green tea a day made people age 55 and older 38 percent less likely to experience a decline in their mental abilities. Drinking a second cup daily made them 54 percent less likely to show mental declines.

STRESS REDUCER

Another benefit of green tea it’s is lower in caffeine than most other teas, so you may be able to drink the five cups a day that lowered psychological stress in a large group of Japanese people in a recent study done at Sendai’s Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. The researchers did not identify any particular component of green tea that might have been soothing, but animal studies suggest that one compound, EGCC, had both sedative and hypnotic effects that tamp down the body’s production of stress chemicals.

ASTHMA – LUNG HEALTH
The antioxidant quercetin, found in green tea, has been shown to inhibit the release of inflammatory substances from mast cells, which are involved in allergic responses….This is how most asthma drugs work.
Try drinking two cups of green tea daily to keep asthma symptoms at bay.

ALLERGIES- INFLAMMATION REDUCER
Another benefit of green tea is it’s rich in flavonoids, plant chemicals that protect against inflammation. For struggles with allergies, try drinking a few cups of tea a day and see if the sinus inflammation goes down.

SKIN CARE-ACNE
A University of Miami study found that even a mild dose of green tea’s antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds erased almost two-thirds of pimples from people with mild to moderate acne when used twice daily for six weeks. To benefit, make a cup of green tea, let cool, and use as a face wash, or lay the tea bag directly on the skin to act as a compress for particularly bad pimples. For oily skin, mix peppermint tea with the green tea for an oil-blasting wash.

In addition green teas is an effective beauty agent in reducing puffy eyes, and remarkably effective tonic in preventing and curing urinary tract infections. It antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties empower Green Tea as super food that support a Wellness Lifestyle.

Lao Tzu considered green tea as the “elixir of Life”….now science confirms the outstanding Wellness properties of its use.