Another medicine from nature - green tea

Tea drinking is an ancient tradition dating back 5,000 years in China and India. Long regarded in those cultures as an aid to good health, researchers now are studying tea for possible use in the prevention and treatment of a variety of cancers

In the laboratory, studies have shown that tea catechins act as powerful inhibitors of cancer growth in several ways: They scavenge oxidants before cell injuries occur, reduce the incidence and size of chemically induced tumors, and inhibit the growth of tumor cells. In studies of liver, skin, and stomach cancer, chemically induced tumors were shown to decrease in size in mice that were fed green and black tea

Two studies in China, where green tea is a mainstay of the diet, resulted in promising findings. One study involving over 18,000 men found that tea drinkers were about half as likely to develop stomach or esophageal cancer as men who drank little tea, even after adjusting for smoking and other health and diet factors (3). A second study at the Beijing Dental Hospital found that consuming 3 grams of tea a day, or about 2 cups, along with the application of a tea extract, reduced the size and proliferation of leukoplakia, a precancerous oral plaque (1).


From U.S National Cancer Institute