|
Green Tea
and The Flu
Flu is a contagious infection of the nose, throat
and lungs caused by the influenza virus. Every year during the late fall
and winter outbreaks of flu spread rapidly throughout the world, usually
caused by a single strain of the virus. Because the strain is constantly
changing, each year the virus that causes the outbreak is a little
different than ever before.
But the results of these many strains of flu are
the same: In the U.S. alone, tens of millions of Americans (5% -20% of
us) are infected with flu every year, causing an estimated
70 million missed work days, 38 million
missed school days and some 200,000 hospitalizations every year.
Can
green tea, with its antiviral properties, do anything about the flu?
Scientists in Japan decided to put it to the test on 124 elderly nursing
home residents, at least 65 years of age, who had received the flu
vaccine.
The volunteers were divided into two groups. Each group
gargled three times a day for three months, one with a tea catechin
solution, the other with a solution containing no catechins.
At
the study's end, the incidence of flu was compared between the two
groups.
Just slightly over 1 percent of those gargling with the catechin
solution got the flu, while ten times as many people developed
flu when gargling with the non-catechin solution. And this was in
people who had been given the flu shot!
When it comes to flu, prevention is the best medicine. So keep drinking
your green tea!
(Yamada H, Takuma N, Daimon T, Hara Y. Gargling with tea catechin
extracts for the prevention of influenza infection in elderly nursing
home residents: a prospective clinical study. J Altern Complement Med
2006;12(7):669-72.)
|
Nadine Taylor, M.S., R.D. presents
GreenTeaLibrary.com, the most
comprehensive collection of scientific information describing the
health benefits of green tea.
|
|
