Green Tea Extract and Immune Health

Green Tea helps to stimulate immune health, which is your body’s first line of defense against disease and infection! The immune system consists of white blood cells, or leukocytes. The main organs in the immune system are the bone marrow, spleen, thymus and lymph nodes. Incredibly, your bone marrow manufactures 1 billion white blood cells every day!

The Immune System
There are different types of leukocytes such as neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, lymphocytles, monocytes and macrophages. These patrol the body and protect it from germs and other foreign bodies. Each of these targets specific pathogens like parasites, bacteria, fungi, allergies, pathogens, virus, tumor cells, and other foreign bodies. Leukocytes are found all over the body and in the bloodstream. These natural sentries of the body have an in-built memory system that helps the body to become immune to a second attack.

Cellular life is very intriguing! There are about 200 kinds of cells in your body and your body is engaged in a continuous process of replacing old cells with new ones. Every second there are about 50 million cells in your body that die and are replaced by new ones. This process is so controlled that your body has the right number of cells of each type at any given time.

Sometimes cells commit suicide, which is called apostosis. Apostosis is the body’s way of self-destroying cells that are not normal. Abnormal multiplication of cells could be caused by free radical activity and can lead to cancer.

It is interesting to note that all the cells in your body recognize each other. Cells that belong to one organ or tissue also recognize each other and this is what keeps cells from the same organ or tissue together. Leukocytes recognize cells that are abnormal or are foreign to the body. Leukocytes quickly work to prevent them from invading your system.

This is basically how the immune system works. It is therefore very vital that we take pro-active measures to support the function of our immune system.

Immune Health and Nutrition
Immune health works at the cellular level where basic health begins. Cellular function is supported by good nutrition. The relationship between nutrition and immune health is explained by Dr. George L. Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., associate director, division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He says, "Nutrition plays an important part in maintaining immune function. Insufficiency in one or more essential nutrients may prevent the immune system from functioning at its peak."

David Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Yale Prevention Research Center in New Haven, Connecticut reinforces this, "There's no question the immune system fundamentally is influenced by overall health—and a balanced diet is key. Not only are essential nutrients critical for the production and maintenance of key germ-fighting cells in the immune system, but a balanced diet also has a strong effect on vascular function, and the immune system is dependent on blood flow. The bloodstream is the route along which infection-fighting cells travel throughout the body to where they're needed.”

Doctors and nutritionists recommend that you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, avoid saturated fats and red meat, and exercise regularly to help nutritionally support immune health.

Green Tea and Immune Health
Because immunity is battled at the cellular level, antioxidants play a key role. Consuming foods that are rich in antioxidants helps your body manage free radical activity. Dark-colored fruits and vegetables usually have the highest antioxidant value. Drinking green tea can significantly help boost your immune health.

Green tea is rich in antioxidants, especially epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). In vitro and animal studies show that green tea may considerably support immune health. These studies indicate that green tea may be beneficial for immune health in many ways:

Green Tea Shows Anti-Viral, Anti-Fungal and Anti-Bacterial Properties.
In vitro studies suggest that EGCG inhibits the adenovirus from replicating itself. This virus is one of many that are responsible for causing the common cold according to studies conducted at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada and also at the University of Florida. The latter study indicated that Green Tea drinkers had an enhanced ability to fight common colds and flu because of an increase in a specific type of immune cells known as interferon gamma T cells. The study showed that Green Tea drinkers had a 28% increase in interferon gamma T cells with a 26% increase in the secretion of antigens as opposed to those who did not consume Green Tea.1,2

EGCG also helps to inhibit the influenza virus from replicating and also exhibits antifungal properties.3-4

Green Tea Helps to Protect the Liver
Green tea protects the liver by stimulating the immune system because of the action of powerful antioxidants reducing the damage done by toxins due to excess alcohol consumption and cigarette smoke. The result of such studies indicates that a dietary supplement of Green Tea can help to reduce early toxin-induced liver injury by neutralizing oxidative stress.5-6

Green Tea Helps to Promote the Production of Immune Cells.
Tea polysaccharides (TPS), one of the main components in green tea, stimulate the production of cytokines in the bone marrow. Cytokines are used in cellular communication and are critical to the body’s immune response to pathogens.7

A balanced diet along with plenty of fruits and vegetables, and exercise will help support good health. With numerous studies that strongly suggest Green Tea’s beneficial effects it only makes sense to protect immune health through Green Tea supplementation. Instead of reaching for coffee, substitute your coffee drinking with cups of Green Tea. Six cups of green tea a day is said to increase your immunity 5 times faster than plain coffee. You can brew fresh cups of Green Tea every day, but supplements like Green Tea Plus are convenient and packed with antioxidant power. Green Tea Plus contains 6 times the antioxidant power of a freshly brewed cup of Green Tea.

References:

1. Inhibition of adenovirus infection and adenain by green tea catechins, Antiviral Res. 2003 Apr;58(2):167-73. PMID: 12742577




2. Specific Formulation of Camellia sinensis Prevents Cold and Flu Symptoms and Enhances T Cell Function: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 26, No. 5, 445-452 (2007), American College of Nutrition




3. Antiviral effect of catechins in green tea on influenza virus, Antiviral Res. 2005 Nov;68(2):66-74. Epub 2005 Aug 9. PMID: 16137775




4. Multiple effects of green tea catechin on the antifungal activity of antimycotics against Candida albicans.J Antimicrob Chemother. 2004 Feb;53(2):225-9. Epub 2003 Dec 19. PMID: 14688042




5. Green tea extract protects against early alcohol-induced liver injury in rats, Biol Chem. 2002 Mar-Apr;383(3-4):663-70. PMID: 12033455




6. Imai K, Nakachi K. Cross sectional study of effects of drinking green tea on cardiovascular and liver diseases. BMJ. 1995 Mar 18;310(6981):693-6.




7. Epigallocatechin Gallate Modulates Cytokine Production by Bone Marrow–Derived Dendritic Cells Stimulated with Lipopolysaccharide or Muramyldipeptide, or Infected with Legionella pneumophila, Experimental Biology and Medicine 230:645-651 (2005). Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine