Defending Against Cancer
Bioavailability: the key
These may all sound rosy and hopeful for the worried, but there is a catch. While most reports have been promising and positive, some scientists point out that results can be inconsistent. “In spite of the strong evidence for the cancer preventive activity of tea polyphenols in animal models, such an activity has not been consistently observed in studies on humans…” write Dr Yang’s team in their well-studied report on the subject (19). Yang and Dr Lambert have been teamed up for years in the pursuit of understanding more about tea and its health nature.
Some conclude that the salutary contents of tea, in particular the unstable EGCG, may have been excreted or deteriorated before reaching the part of the body needing its rescue (20). Bioavailability, as it is often called, still need to be understood for the salutary contents of tea, as are the mechanism and the constituents themselves.
Dr William Li’s (Anti-)Angiogenesis Blend
Dr William Li’s very own anti-angiogenesis blend: jasmine pearl + sencha
One advocate who promotes natural food in the diet to fight cancer is Dr William Li of the Angiogenesis Foundation. In his studies of natural food products that aid anti-angiogenesis in the human body, he found out that ordinary quality tea is very good, and that by combining jasmine pearls with sencha, the effect is much better than each tea alone, and the best in his range, which is quite very limited. I guess what Dr Li said was ordinary from his neighbourhood in Cambridge Massachusetts would be quite, well, ordinary.
We were interested to find out what it would taste like anyway so we made a blend of the most ordinary quality sencha and jasmine pearls from our sample cabinet.
None in the team are quite fond of either tea but we were surprised. The result, in term of taste, is actually better than either tea alone. Not a bad idea. That’s credit to Dr Li.
The first impulse I got was to try to hypothesize on why, but then I think it’s pretty premature to establish anything yet. One good thing is obvious, however. Since this is your own blend, you can adjust the proportion of the taste from the sencha to the proportion of taste and jasmine aroma from the jasmine pearls.
For my own drinking, I’ll stick to my own repertoire of selections for better taste afterall. At the back of my mind, I know all of them will give me great health support incomparable by any other drinks anyway.
Others emphasize the need to establish a clue to the dosage of tea constituents needed for the human body in order for them to be effective (21).
Yet repeatedly scientists found out that even when they composed tea extract drinks using accurate dosages of various tea extracts, the effects were still not as good as with real tea infusions (22).
Well, some people look very closely to examine at molecular level how things work, or at the individual subject of study, but others look at it in a macro scale.
In the long run, macro scale
A group of Spanish scientists studied the epidemiologics (study of a disease pattern in a large group of people) of cancers and tea conducted in various countries conclude that the occurrence of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, stomach cancer and lung cancer is inversely proportional to quantity of tea consumption, i.e. those who drink more tea are less likely to have these cancers (23).
There have been quite a few such large scale studies. For example, in an US study following 35,369 post-menopause women for 8 years (the Iowa Cohort) (24) late last century, scientists found out that those who drank 2 cups of tea a day were 30 to 60% less likely to contract cancers in the digestive tract, and various degrees of lower risks of cancers in the pancreas, cervix, uterus, urinary tract, and even the dreadful leukemia. Remember that in those years in Midwest USA, it was mostly only teabags.
Let’s look east to Asia, where more people drink leaf teas, such as the famous Oshaki Cohort Study “Green Tea Consumption and Mortality Due to Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and All Causes in Japan” (25) where Dr Shinichi Kuriyama and his colleagues conclude — after following 40,530 randomly selected matured adults for 11 years, including smokers and alcohol drinkers — those who drank tea regularly were 16% to 26% less likely to die early of ALL causes.
Tea does not do miracles, but it helps.
Tea does not do miracles, but it helps
Dr. Siro Trevisanato of Banting and Best Institute of Medical Research sums it well, “They (tea flavonoids) act as antioxidants and prevent tissues from being damaged by free radicals. Within cells, flavonoids block effects of known carcinogens. Flavonoids also appear to protect genes from mutagenic effects of environmental factors. All of these effects may contribute to the maintenance of the healthy state of cells…” (26)
Cancer is a huge topic and to many people, a real pain and extreme trauma. It is often life-threatening. We have no intention of simplifying its concern by saying tea is a miracle alternative for all, but wouldn’t it be unwise not to develop a habit for it simply for a better chance? Quality of life needs to be maintained before bad things happen. Make yourself a fine cup of tea.
As for Charlene, she quitted job and works full time as a volunteer in an alternative cancer therapy support group, and enjoying life.
