Tea Against Cholesterol

Tea Against Cholesterol

Studies in several countries have found all three kinds of tea to have some effect in reducing cholesterol in blood fats, though oolong seems to get the best results. Triglycerides and cholesterol are the two important fat substances in the bloodstream. These are essential for many things, but cholesterol also builds up on the walls of the arteries, causing them to narrow and restrict blood flow, a condition know as atherosclerosis.

Japanese researchers, testing with green tea, concluded that it is the catechins that act to cut cholesterol, and increase the excretion of total lipids and cholesterol in the feces.

Fibrinogen is a globulin in the blood which turns into fibrin to help in normal clotting. But in patients with abnormally high fibrinogen levels, fibrin joins with arterial wall cholesterol to form plaque. One catechin isolated from green tea helps dissolve fibrin. (Bao Jun and others at Zhejiang Medical College Second Affiliate Hospital, Hangzhou, at Symposium. Six years of treatment with a medicine made from oxidized tea polyphenols on 214 cardiovascular patients with a high fibrinogen level brought it back to normal for 81% of them. (Xia Wuying, same hospital, at the Symposium.)

An even better rate of 85% was reported on 120 high-fibrinogen patients given tea pigment (TP) as a medicine at another Zhejiang hospital. It can influence the anticoagulation enzyme, help dissolve fibrin, and also decrease the rate of aggregation of platelets and the adherence of platelets and cholesterol to the artery walls. (Luo Fuqing, Zhejiang Medical School Cardiovascular Research Institute, at the symposium.) Professor Luo says that tea pigments are, with their anti-coagulant properties, abundant in both green and black tea.

Drinking of oolong tea itself for a month was reported to yield an 8i% return to normal of high lipids in 424 patients at six bug hospital in the city of Guangzhou (Canton). ( He Moli and others at the tea Research Institute, Guangdong Institute of Agricultural Sciences and the Guangdong People's Hospital, at the Symposium.) But it should be pointed out that when results are so spectacular from one experiment, much more research must be done to confirm the validity of the investigation. It is still far too early to say with certainty that oolong has this lipid-reducing effect.

The above information indicates that regular drinking of tea (although on which kind of tea the verdict is not yet in) may play a role in controlling blood fats and preventing accumulation of cholesterol in the arteries. Initial studies and tests also indicate greater possibilities for utilizing medicines made from tea in treating related conditions. "Keep drinking tea and you may avoid some of the worst heart diseases," Professor Luo Fuqing is quoted as saying. ("What's in a Name," by Vijay Dudeja, Tea and Coffee Journal, January 1989.)

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