Green Tea and Your Health

This is a very interesting article regarding green tea and Type 2 Diabetes.

Chronic inflammation is thought to play an important role in the development of cardiovascular diseases and many cancers, as well as being an important component of diabetes. Polyphenols derived from green tea are known to have significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and intense research is under way to determine whether or not green tea supplements can favorably impact diseases that are associated, at least in part, with inflammation.

A new study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, done at Osaka University in Japan, has evaluated green-tea supplementation in patients with early adult-onset (Type 2) diabetes.

Sixty adult men and women with early diabetes volunteered for this prospective "crossover" study. Half of the volunteers took daily supplements of green tea powder for two months, while the other half of the volunteers received no supplements.

During the next two months of the study, the volunteers "crossed over," and the observation group was switched to daily green-tea supplementation for two more months, while the group that received green-tea supplements during the first half of the study became the observation (or "control") group.

Crossover studies such as this one provide the opportunity for researchers to compare two or more groups' responses to not only initiating therapeutic interventions but also to assess the effects of stopping such interventions.

In addition to monitoring blood-sugar levels during the course of this clinical research study, the researchers also monitored a marker in the blood, known as hemoglobin A1C, that reflects the long-term adequacy of diabetes control. The study also assessed the volunteers for potential changes in weight, body fat, blood pressure, fasting blood-glucose levels, cholesterol levels (including HDL and LDL), and levels of C-reactive protein, a blood marker of inflammation.

Although none of the other parameters changed significantly in the volunteers who were assigned to take green-tea supplements, a significant decrease in hemoglobin A1C levels was observed in response to daily green-tea supplementation.

Although this brief study cannot tell us the long-term health impact of green tea on patients with early diabetes, it is nonetheless intriguing that daily green-tea supplementation, when taken for only two months, was able to reduce hemoglobin A1C levels.

Resource:  Dr. Robert Wascher, Health, News & Research:  Newsmax Health.com

Comments

[Paul]

Good information Ginger !!

[Ginger]

Thank you for commenting Paul. :)