Green Tea Appears to Cut Blood Pressure, Cholesterol
Dr. Lee Swanson - Upate
A new study published in the journal Nutrition reports that daily supplementation with green tea (Camellia sinensis) extract may reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and markers of oxidative stress—all within three weeks.
Reductions of systolic and diastolic blood pressure of 5 and 4 mmHg, respectively, were observed following daily supplements of green tea extracts, while total cholesterol levels were reduced by 10 mg/dL, according to the findings of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel study.
Researchers from the University of Florida, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and the Nutritional Science Research Institute, Boston, initiated the study.
Green tea contains between 30% and 40% of water-extractable polyphenols, while black tea (green tea that has been oxidized by fermentation) contains between 3% and 10%. Oolong tea is a semi-fermented tea and is somewhere between green and black tea.
The four primary polyphenols found in fresh tea leaves are epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), and epicatechin (EC).
Meri Nantz and co-workers recruited 52 healthy men and 72 healthy women with an average age of 29 and randomly assigned them to receive daily supplements of a standardized, decaffeinated green tea extract or placebo for three weeks.
At the end of the supplementation period the researchers found that total and LDL cholesterol levels had decreased by 10 and 9 mg/dL, respectively. In addition to the blood pressure reduction, improvements in malondialdehyde (a marker of oxidative stress) and amyloid-alpha (a marker of chronic inflammation) were also recorded. Specifically, 12% and 42% reductions, respectively, were observed.
"Camellia sinensis compounds may be an option for people who have mild to moderate high BP, elevated LDL cholesterol, elevated markers of inflammation, or a combination of these three CVD risk factors," wrote the researchers.
Nutrition Published online ahead of print.
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