Green Tea Short-Circuits Cancer

An antioxidant in green tea can short-circuit cancer in a striking new way, making it better than cancer drugs at blocking a protein that can trigger cancer, according to breakthrough research presented at the annual conference of the American Institute of Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.

"In fact, the active green tea substance, called EGCG, seems to target one protein that is particularly common throughout our bodies, and does so with a degree of precision that cancer drugs still aren't able to match," said Dr. Thomas A. Gasiewicz, a professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. 

This means that EGCG in green tea may have broad powers to simultaneously stop the cancer process before it even gets started in many tissues and organs, including the breast, prostate, bladder, colon, stomach, pancreas, and esophagus.

Specifically, EGCG targets and binds directly to a protein called HSP90 that passes on signals to start the cancer process. "As a result, potentially harmful genes are less likely to get turned on, and the cascade of events leading to cancer is cut off before it begins," explains Dr. Gasiewicz. 

Drug companies are trying to develop pharmaceuticals that stop cancer the same way as EGCG does, but so far have been unsuccessful, says AICR. 

Despite the promise of green tea's EGCG as an anticancer agent, only 15% of Americans drink any green tea in a given day, and only 1% of Americans drink as much as the typical person in Japan or China, says AICR.  Green tea, in fact, is the least popular nonalcoholic beverage in the U.S.

However, you don't have to drink green tea to get EGCG. You can get concentrated amounts of anticancer EGCG in capsules of green tea extract.

Our High Antioxidant Green Tea Capsules contains 450 mg of green tea of which 70% is EGCG. This is equal to the antioxidants in 3 cups of brewed decaf green tea. Careful, many green tea supplements only contain 20% to 40% EGCG. Made in the USA. See related items below.