Boosting Immunity

Boosting Immunity

Those great polyphenols have also been found to increase white blood cells, the "soldiers" which fight infection in the human body. Tea extract is one of the main ingredients in a medicine now widely used with a high rate of success in China to counteract the reduction in white blood cells which accompanies radiation therapy. The medicine was developed by the Tea Research Institute in Hangzhou and other Chinese institutions.

In India too, researchers found that mice fed tea were less likely to develop leukemia when exposed to radiation.

A study of Jasmine tea by the Fujian Institute of Traditional Medicine and Pharmacology (Fujian is a big producer of Jasmine tea) found that tea heightened certain functions of the white blood cells in mice. In a related area, Soviet researchers say that tea helps the body excrete harmful radioactive strontium 90 before it settles in the bones. Chinese sources say tea can help absorb strontium 90 even after it has lodged in the bones. A mixture of black tea and the plant viola inconspicuous achieved a 90% survival rate on animals subjected to intense radiation.

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