Green Tea And Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is very scary thing and if you are a male over the age of 38 it should be on your radar. Prostate cancer is the most common form of non skin cancer in North America, it affects 1 in every 6 men. Age can be directly linked to the likelihood of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Although only 1 in every 10,000 men under age of 40 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, this rate rapidly rises to 1 in every 38 men for the ages of 40 to 59, and again 1 in every 15 for ages of 60 to 69. In fact, greater than 65% of all prostate cancer is diagnosed in men above the age of 65.
Green Tea however can help reduce your risk of being one of the unlucky that find themselves diagnosed with prostate cancer. Here are a few quick notes from the National Cancer Institute’s fact sheet:
The antioxidants found in tea–called catechins–may selectively inhibit the growth of cancer.- In lab studies using animals, catechins scavenged oxidants before cell damage occurred, reduced the number and size of tumors, and inhibited the growth of cancer cells.
- NCI researchers are investigating the therapeutic and preventive use of tea catechins against a variety of cancers.
Green Tea helps create a protective effect for advanced prostate cancer. This effect can be directly linked with the amount of green tea consumption, increasing intake is linked to reduced risk.
Effect of a prodrug of the green tea polyphenol (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate on the growth of androgen-independent prostate cancer in vivo.
Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the major and most potent polyphenol compound of green tea that has been shown to have anticancer effects against various types of cancers. In this study, in addition to the EGCG compound, a synthetic derivative, the peracetate of EGCG (EGCG-P), was used to investigate the inhibitory effects on growth of androgen-independent prostate cancer in vivo. The advantage of EGCG-P is that it may act as a prodrug, leading to higher bioavailability than EGCG itself. The aim of our study was to compare the differences between EGCG and EGCG-P on their inhibitory effect on androgen-independent prostate cancer, CWR22R, xenograft model in nude mice. The mice were administrated daily with solvent dimethyl sulfoxide, EGCG, and EGCG-P separately through intraperitoneal injection for 20 days. Tumor volume and body weight of nude mice were recorded daily. Serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were also measured before and after the treatment. The effects of both EGCG and EGCG-P on tumor cell proliferation were assessed by immunohistochemical (IHC) method using antibodies against Ki-67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen. The apoptotic effect was evaluated by IHC against B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma-2 and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling assay by in situ apoptosis detection kit. Moreover, the potential suppression of angiogenesis by EGCG and EGCG-P on prostate cancer was examined by IHC against CD31. Our results revealed that treatment of EGCG and EGCG-P compounds suppressed the growth of CWR22R xenografts without causing any detectable side effects in nude mice. The suppression of growth of the tumor was correlated with the decrease of serum PSA level together with the reduction in tumor angiogenesis and an increase in apoptosis on prostate cancer cells. The results showed that treatment of EGCG and EGCG-P inhibited tumor growth and angiogenesis while promoting apoptosis of the prostate cancer cells in vivo. Our results suggest that EGCG-P may be a more stable and useful compound for increasing the therapeutic anticancer effects in androgen-independent prostate cancer.
Department of Anatomy, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, HKSAR, China.
Lee SC, Chan WK, Lee TW, Lam WH, Wang X, Chan TH, Wong YC.
Green tea consumption and prostate cancer risk in Japanese men: a prospective study.
The incidence of prostate cancer is much lower in Asian than Western populations. Given that environmental factors such as dietary habits may play a major role in the causation of prostate cancer and the high consumption of green tea in Asian populations, this low incidence may be partly due to the effects of green tea. The JPHC Study (Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study) was established in 1990 for cohort I and in 1993 for cohort II. The subjects were 49,920 men aged 40-69 years who completed a questionnaire that included their green tea consumption habit at baseline and were followed until the end of 2004. During this time, 404 men were newly diagnosed with prostate cancer, of whom 114 had advanced cases, 271 were localized, and 19 were of an undetermined stage. Green tea was not associated with localized prostate cancer. However, consumption was associated with a dose-dependent decrease in the risk of advanced prostate cancer. The multivariate relative risk was 0.52 (95% confidence interval: 0.28, 0.96) for men drinking 5 or more cups/day compared with less than 1 cup/day (p(trend) = 0.01). Green tea may be associated with a decreased risk of advanced prostate cancer.
Epidemiology and Prevention Division, Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan.
Kurahashi N, Sasazuki S, Iwasaki M, Inoue M, Tsugane S; JPHC Study Group.
6 Reasons To Drink Green Tea
Every day the steady stream of good news about the health benefits of drinking green tea is getting harder to ignore, even hardcore coffee drinkers are beginning to slurp mugs of the wonderful brew we call Tea. The daily dose of inflammation reducing, disease-fighting antioxidants–long linked with heart protection–would be enough incentive, but wait, there is more! A lot more. 
Lower Your Risk Of Cancer
Many polyphenols - the potent antioxidants that green tea is famous for - help keep cancer cells from gaining a foothold in the body, by stunting their growth and then nullifying the creation of new blood vessels that tumors need to thrive. Studies have found that people who regularly drink green tea reduce their risk of stomach, breast, esophagus, colon, and/or prostate cancer.
Weight Loss
Green tea speeds up your body’s metabolism, your natural calorie burning process. This will help increase weight loss even during times when you are at rest.
Smooth Skin
Got a cut, scrape, or bite, and a little leftover green tea? Soak a cotton pad in it. The tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed breakouts and blemishes, sunburns, even puffy eyelids.
Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans.
Background: Current interest in the role of functional foods in weight control has focused on plant ingredients capable of interfering with the sympathoadrenal system.
Objective: We investigated whether a green tea extract , by virtue of its high content of caffeine and catechin polyphenols, could increase 24-h energy expenditure (EE) and fat oxidation in humans.
Design: Twenty-four-hour EE, the respiratory quotient (RQ), and the urinary excretion of nitrogen and catecholamines were measured in a respiratory chamber in 10 healthy men. On 3 separate occasions, subjects were randomly assigned among 3 treatments: green tea extract (50 mg caffeine and 90 mg epigallocatechin gallate), caffeine (50 mg), and placebo, which they ingested at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Results: Relative to placebo, treatment with the green tea extract resulted in a significant increase in 24-h EE (4%; P<0.01) and a significant decrease in 24-h RQ (from 0.88 to 0.85; P<0.01) without any change in urinary nitrogen. Twenty-four-hour urinary norepinephrine excretion was higher during treatment with the green tea than with the placebo (40%, P<0.05). Treatment with caffeine in amounts equivalent to those found in the green tea extract had no effect on EE and RQ nor on urinary nitrogen or catecholamines.
Conclusions: Green tea has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content per se. The green tea extract may play a role in the control of body composition via sympathetic activation of thermogenesis, fat oxidation, or both.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 70:1040-1045
Dulloo, A. G., C. Duret, D. Rohrer, L. Girardier, N. Mensi, M. Fathi, P. Chantre, and J. Vandermander (1999)
