Green Tea: Green Tea May Improve Bone Strength

Researchers in Hong Kong are reporting new evidence that green tea, widely used as a dietary supplement, could help improve bone health.

According to the report, researchers found that the tea contains a group of chemicals that can stimulate bone formation and help slow its breakdown. Their findings are in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. The beverage has the potential to help in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and other bone diseases that affect million worldwide, researchers suggest.

Green Tea: Green Tea Could Prevent Cancer

In the new study, Ping Chung Leung and colleagues note that many scientific studies have linked tea to beneficial effects in preventing cancer, heart disease, and other conditions. Recent studies in humans and cell cultures suggest that tea may also benefit bone health. But few scientific studies have explored the exact chemicals in tea that might be responsible for this effect.

Green Tea: The Benefits of Drinking Green Tea

During the study scientists exposed a group of cultured bone-forming cells to three major green tea components – epigallocatechin (EGC), gallocatechin (GC), and gallocatechin gallate (GCG), for several days. They found that EGC boosted the activity of a key enzyme that promotes bone growth by up to 79 per cent. EGC also significantly boosted levels of bone mineralization in the cells, which strengthens bones. The scientists also showed that high concentrations of ECG blocked the activity of a type of cell that breaks down or weakens bones. The green tea components did not cause any toxic effects to the bone cells, they note.

The Benefits of Green Tea: Green Tea helps you Lose Weight & More

The Benefites of Green Tea: Other studies have found that green can also help prevent Type 1 Diabetes, fight cancer and aid weight loss.