The Amazing Health Benefits of Tea!

    For thousands of years, tea has been considered an amazing medicine. The health benefits of tea are astounding. Tea can help fight cancer, lower stress, and lower the risk of heart disease. It has been said that drinking tea daily can also slow the aging process. Tea contains the same special antioxidants that can be found in fruits and vegetables, only in much higher numbers. These antioxidants are the body's best defense against illness. Luckily, tea is readily available, easy to prepare, and delicious.

    One out of four Americans will develop cancer, making cancer one of the leading causes of death in America. Although there are many ways to lower your risk of cancer, drinking tea may be one of the simplest and most enjoyably ways. The powerful antioxidants in tea can thwart cancer in many different ways. These antioxidants begin by lowering the toxicity of carcinogens, cancer causing chemicals. Antioxidants then work together with the body's natural enzymes to prevent cells from becoming cancerous, and stopping the activation of tumors.

    In one study conducted by the Naylor Dana Institute for Disease Prevention in New York, mice were injected with a carcinogen in cigarette smoke. The first group of mice was given the carcinogen along with green tea. The second group was given the carcinogen without green tea. After ten weeks, the mice without green tea developed an average of 22.5 lung tumors per mouse. The group of mice given the green tea only developed 12.5 lung tumors per mouse, proving that green tea reduced the onset of cancer by 45%. Along with preventing cancer, tea can also lower the risk of heart disease. Heart disease is another leading cause of death in America. Heart attacks and strokes are mainly caused by clogged arteries, high blood pressure, and stress.

    Tea's wonder chemicals significantly lower these risks. Drinking tea daily can throw off all of these risks. Tea can thin the blood without taking medicines that cause dangerous side-effects. In addition to chemically fighting off heart disease, tea drinkers are also associated with having healthier diets. Tea drinkers are found to eat more bread, take more vitamins, drink less coffee, and smoke fewer cigarettes.

    Tea can also strengthen the body's natural immune system by acting as an antibacterial agent. In fact, one cup of tea has been found to be more than strong enough to kill disease causing bacteria. Along with reducing the number of bacteria that cause illness, tea can also greatly benefit in oral hygiene. In many different studies, green tea antioxidants have been proven to reduce the amount of oral plaque. Plaque causes cavities and gum disease. In a Japanese study, people who drank a cup of tea immediately after eating lunch had fewer cavities than those that did not.  Some other benefits of tea include lowering blood pressure, regulating cholesterol, aiding osteoporosis, slowing the aging process, and deterring food poisoning. Drinking just one cup of tea a day can give you all of these benefits!

    Is any other food or drink reported to have as many health benefits as green tea? The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, using it to treat everything from headaches to depression. In her book Green Tea: The Natural Secret for a Healthier Life, Nadine Taylor states that green tea has been used as a medicine in China for at least 4,000 years.

   Today, scientific research in both Asia and the west is providing hard evidence for the health benefits long associated with drinking green tea. For example, in 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of an epidemiological study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly sixty percent. University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells. There is also research indicating that drinking green tea lowers total cholesterol levels, as well as improving the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol.

   To sum up, here are just a few medical conditions in which drinking green tea is reputed to be helpful:

Cancer
Rheumatoid Arthritis
High Cholesterol levels
Cardiovascular disease
Infection
Impaired immune function

To name a few!