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The green tea phenomenon

Despite being a heavy drinker of green tea since my diagnosis, mainly for its cancer prevention, and hopefully cancer curing qualities, I recently have developed a new found enthusiasm for green tea.

Now whether it has been the green tea I have been drinking for the past 6+ years, my heavy exercise routine, or just pure chance that has kept my MCL stable, or at least [very] slow progressing, for the past 7+ years is certainly open to debate, but based on past research, I have chosen to believe green tea has at least helped to some degree.

So what has given me this new found enthusiasm?

Well, a friend of mine, and cycling buddy, was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer, and knowing my daily regimen called to ask my advice on green tea. He had already done a lot of research on the subject, so when I told him my obsession with green tea consisted principally of drinking the least expensive, decaffeinated green tea available (Trader Joe's brand of 18 tea bags for $3, and more recently Fresh & Easy's brand of 40 tea bags for $2), I felt like a neophyte on the subject.

[note]I've always drank decaffeinated tea, because before my diagnosis I would get heart palpitations which I attributed to my drinking too much coffee. I knew that was the case, because after giving up coffee and caffeine completely, the palpitations stopped.[/note]

So in collaboration with my friend, and the help of the internet, I managed to do sufficient research, and learn just enough more information on the subject of green tea to be dangerous, some of which follows:

  • Japanese green tea has the highest content of the cancer fighting agent Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), even more than Chinese green tea

  • Decaffeinate green tea has about a third of the EGCG of regular tea, and

  • loose leaf teas are far superior to tea in bags


And with the help of another friend, who knows her way around the local Japanese communities here in LA, we went and purchased a few selections of regular [non-decaffeinated] loose leaf green tea to try. I decided to at least try regular green tea, because my research also indicated,

  • green tea has about 1/4 the amount of caffeine as coffee, and

  • if I select a tea picked later in the harvest season (e.g. Sensha), the caffeine content is less than teas picked early in the season (e.g. Gyokura)


I'm hoping that small amount of green tea won't cause any problems, but should it, I can always start adding in decaf green tea to the point I don't experience any palpitations.

Another thing I've learned is making and brewing green tea is not that simple. In order to optimize flavor, the temperature of the water and the brewing time need to be accurately controlled. Depending on the particular green tea selected, the temperature needs to be controlled between 175°F and 195°F, and brewing time should only be 1.5 to 2 minutes, so despite my research also revealing boiling water, and brewing for 5 to 10 minutes optimizes the extraction of EGCG, I still decided to purchase a new temperature controlled tea kettle, and a new pot for steeping the tea.

Now I feel like a kid again with a new toy. The electric kettle and brewing pot arrived today, and I can barely hold back my enthusiasm till tomorrow morning, when I can make myself some tea.

Comments

Alan Posner said…
Marc,

Out of curiosity, how many oz. of Green tea do you drink a day? Do you add anything to it (milk, sugar)?

I don't know how you feel about "drugs" but taking a small dose of Inderal daily would probably eliminate the palpitations you get from caffeine if getting the extra EGCG is important.
Marc said…
Let's see, I drink 4 - 8 oz cups every morning. That's 224 oz.

On Tuesday's and Thursday's when I'm at work, I drink another 2-3 8 oz cups. That's another 40 oz, and then at least two days (and most times 3 days) a week, I'll have another big cup (probably 12 oz) of tea at the local coffee shop (always the caffeinated version), for another, we'll say 30 oz's.

So all told, that's about 294 oz of green tea per week, or on average approx 40+ oz per day.

And thanks for the information on Inderal. It might help someone willing to take it, but you should know by now, I don't take drugs except under extreme circumstances.

I'm confident I'll still get plenty of EGCG, even if I have to cut the regular tea with some decaf.
Becky said…
So, how's the new toy working out?
Marc said…
It's working good. I still have to get the exact quantity of green tea down right, which I'm still working on, but I like it.

And the tea that I bought, actually looks like green tea, and tastes much better.

Now I'm beginning to wonder what I've been drinking for the past 6+ years.
John Wagner said…
Have you looked into high strength EGCG capsules. EGCG capsules are being used in a Mayo Clinic clinical trial with CLL. I don't take them myself but have read of many who do with mixed results. I understand they have to be careful of the source where they buy them as the purity and strength is important.

In the clinical trial, "doses ranged from 400 milligrams (mg) to 2,000 mg administered twice a day. Researchers determined that they had not reached a maximum tolerated dose, even at 2,000 mg twice per day."

"...many of them saw regression to some degree of their chronic lymphocytic leukemia," says Tait Shanafelt, M.D., Mayo Clinic hematologist and lead author of the study. "The majority of individuals who entered the study with enlarged lymph nodes saw a 50 percent or greater decline in their lymph node size."
Marc said…
No John, I haven't, and at this point I have no intention of doing so.

I still believe it was my mega dosing on the so called good vitamins (those vitamins high in anti oxidants that would prevent cancers etc.) which caused my MCL, so I'm not interested in trying such pills, especially if you can't be sure of the quality of the pills themselves.

I'll just keep getting it naturally for now.
Alan Posner said…
Marc,

Quite interested in your comment re: megavitamins "causing" your MCL.

Is there any evidence in the literature that this is possible or is it just your gut feeling. Is there any one vitamin in particular you blame?

Don't forget your dad had some type of leukemia (CLL if I remember correctly).

Don't you think there can be a genetic predisposition, rather than vitamins that plays the major factor?

Alan
Marc said…
Oh I think it's a combination of factors, the environment, my genetic predisposition, and mega dosing of Vitamin C, for which there was some evidence presented a few years back of the bad effects from taking too much Vitamin C.

I have also seen lots of information in general, that too much of a good thing isn't so good.

Plus it's my gut feeling that is accurate, and had a lot to do with my diagnosis.
Becky said…
Marc, you green tea post was the topic at knit night tonight. Where did you get your new tea pot?
Marc said…
Oh how exciting!

I bought the kettle on Amazon

It works great, and heats the water to any temperature within about 2 minutes.

But don't buy the Ingenuitea tea pot they offer with it. Too many of the tea leaves get through the filter and into the cup.

I just went and bought this tea cup with built in infuser.

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