Green Tea May Prevent Large Kidney Stones

Here is another benefit attributed by the scientists to the "miracle drink" of our times: green tea.

According to a report published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal CrystEngComm, drinking green tea may prevent formation of large kidney stone by altering the shape of the calcium oxalate crystals. Green tea's active component phenol has been shown to flatten the calcium oxalate crystals and thus prevent the formation of large kidney crystals. The smaller stones can be passed much more easily and painlessly through urine.

The image below shows the flattening process attributed to green tea consumption.

Green Tea and Longer Telomeres

From Times Online:

"Research suggests that green tea has antioxidant, antithrombotic, antiviral, antibacterial and anti-cancer properties, and may help to lower bad cholesterol. Researchers in Hong Kong also found recently that people who drank three cups a day had longer telomeres — the repetitive DNA sequences at the end of chromosomes that normally shorten with age — than others. They suggest that chemicals called flavanols in green tea help to keep cells younger. Green tea is also known to help to fight gum disease and possibly mouth cancer"

Green Tea May Prevent Oral Cancers

A new scientific study showed that drinking green tea may help the fight against oral cancer.

59% of the 41 volunteer subjects with "pre-malignant mouth lesions" who drank green tea showed a positive response, while only 18% of those who took placebo showed the same positive effect.

However, we must add that 41 subjects is too little a number to produce really robust statistical results.

Probably that's why the chief scientist of the study, Dr. Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulo, a professor in the department of thoracic/head and neck medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said "the findings were encouraging but did not provide definitive proof that green tea can prevent cancer." We agree with him from a statistical point of view.

The subjects were given green tea extracts for 3 months varying between 500 mg and 1,000 mg.

During the 28 months that the study was conducted, 15 people actually did develop oral cancer.