Does green tea offers protection against lung cancer?
A new study out of Taiwan found among both smokers and nonsmokers, those who don’t drink green tea have more than five times the risk of developing lung cancer compared to those who drink at least one cup of green tea per day. Among smokers, those who never drank green tea had almost thirteen times a higher risk of lung cancer.
Studies indicate that regular consumption of green tea may slow or prevent conditions including high cholesterol, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, impaired immune disease and liver disease. In addition, some studies have indicated green tea may have cancer-fighting properties, lowering the rate of gastric, esophageal, and mouth cancers.
And in a conference this week sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), researchers reported that Taiwanese smokers who consumed one cup of green tea each day significantly reduced their chances of developing lung cancer.
Green tea contains polyphenols — powerful antioxidants that fight off cancer-causing free radicals. Previous studies have also linked green tea with reducing the risk of many other cancers, such as bladder cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer and skin cancer.
“Our study may represent a clue that in the case of lung cancer, smoking-induced carcinogenesis could be modulated by green tea consumption and the growth factor environment,” I-Hsin Lin, M.S., a student at Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan, was quoted as saying.
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