Green Tea for Oral Cancer Prevention?
Green tea may help guard against oral cancer, according to recent research.
For the study, researchers focused on 41 people with oral leukoplakia, a precancerous sore that develops on the tongue or the inside of the cheek in response to chronic irritation. For three months, study members took either green tea extract at one of three doses – 500 mg per meter squared of body mass (mg/m2), 750 mg/m2, or 1,000 mg/m2 – or a placebo daily. Of those taking the two highest doses of the extract, 58.8 percent had a clinical response, compared with 36.4 percent in the lowest-extract dose and 18.2 percent in the placebo group.
The green tea extract also led to an improvement in a number of biomarkers that may play a crucial role in predicting cancer development. What’s more, the green tea extract was well tolerated, although it did produce some side effects (including insomnia and nervousness) in the high-dose group.
Green Tea for Oral Cancer Prevention? originally appeared on About.com Alternative Medicine on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 06:00:59.
