Green Tea & Cancer: Is there a link?

You probably thought that drinking green tea daily would help lower your chances of acquiring cancer; however, according to recent studies, you could be wrong. In a new review, researchers looked at 51 medium-to-high quality researches conducted with more than 1.6 million participants from 1985-2008 and discovered “limited” evidence to support the theory behind green tea’s benefits in preventing some types of cancer.

However, the researchers were not taken by astonishment as Dr. Katja Boehm of Unconventional and Complementary Methods in Oncology Study Group in Germany stated that, “We can say for certain that green tea consumption can never account for cancer prevention alone.”

Participants that were included in the review consisted of people either drinking the tea or taking grenn tea extracts. Although most research indicates that there is limited knowledge of green tea’s benefits, one randomized, controlled trial regarding prostrate cancer risk showed a different result.

Investigations regarding digestive cancers such as cancer of pancreas, colon or esophagus and some others showed an opposite trend then the one expected.   Boehm and her teams also found “limited” evidence that green tea could lower the risk of liver cancer. Most of the evidence on bladder and lung cancer was “limited to moderate;” however, it became even more interesting when some evidence indicated that green tea could actually increase the risk of bladder cancer. Also, the evidence that green tea does not protect against cancer of the stomach was “moderate to strong.”

However, all hope is not lost as a link was found between high consumption of green tea and lowered risk of prostrate cancer. The research regarding the risk of prostrate cancer and consumption of green tea was also much higher in quality as it was a randomized, controlled trial.

Almost forty-seven of fifty-one studies were done in Asia.  Boehm believes that in order to receive more accurate results, a “large, well-designed study with adequate green tea consumption” is necessary. “We need to aim at creating high-level evidence in this much talked about but little researched topic area. Funding and infrastructure for clinical trials remain major challenges for the future.”

For all those who do enjoy drinking green tea should continue to do so as it does not have an detrimental effect and is much better than drinking sugary, carbonated beverages. “Drinking green tea appears to be safe at regular, habitual and moderate use, within its recommended dose of 1200 milliliters per day, which is about 5-6 average cups per day,” Boehm said.  Evidence regarding its ability to deter cancer, however,  is still rather shady.

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