drink tea instead of sodas

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cross posted from another list.

 

 

http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/1728.92741

 

 

Green Tea, Glycine May Slow Tumor Growth

 

More Evidence for Anti-Cancer Benefits of Common Food Chemicals

By Salynn Boyles

 

Nov. 2, 2001 -- You've probably read that green tea appears to protect

against cancer. You may even know that its anti-cancer properties are

attributed to an abundance of chemicals called polyphenols.

 

But new research may explain, for the first time, how those chemicals

fight tumors at a molecular level.

 

Using prostate cancer cell lines, researchers from H. Lee Moffitt

Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., found that polyphenols in green tea, and

black and red teas for that matter, target a protein known to protect

cancer cells from death.

 

The research, along with several other studies evaluating the

anti-tumor properties of food components, was presented this week at

an international conference in Miami Beach, Fla.

 

The amino acid glycine was found to reduce breast tumor growth in

rats. Apparently, it blocks the growth of new blood vessels that feed

tumors.

 

Glycine is manufactured in the body, but is also commercially

available as a dietary supplement.

 

" These are very preliminary studies, but they are quite interesting, "

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) President Waun Ki

Hong, MD, tells WebMD. He says that human studies are needed to verify

the findings, but this may represent an important contribution to the

research.

 

AACR co-sponsored the annual meeting along with the National Cancer

Institute and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of

Cancer.

 

In the green tea research, Aslamuzzaman Kazi, PhD, and colleagues

found that polyphenols reduced the level of Bcl-XL protein in prostate

cancer cell lines. Bcl-XL has been shown to protect cancer cells from

death -- known scientifically as apoptosis

 

" The higher the concentration [of polyphenols] the more apoptosis, "

Kazi tells WebMD. " Epidemiological studies have shown that tea has

anticancer activities. We wanted to try to understand the molecular

mechanism o f this action. "

 

Studies in humans have, in fact, been inconclusive regarding the role

of tea in preventing or slowing cancers. While some have shown a clear

protective benefit, others have not. The most recent large study,

published last March in The New England Journal of Medicine, found

that drinking green tea did not lower the risk of developing stomach

cancer in a group of Japanese subjects.

 

In the glycine study, researcher Zishan Haroon, MD, PhD, and olleagues

at Duke University Medical Center, found high levels of glycine

reduced breast tumor growth rates by 15% in rats by blocking the

growth of new tumor-feeding blood vessels. The special diet also

reduced wound-healing by 30%, which, Haroon tells WebMD, explains

glycine's effect on tumors.

 

" Tumors and wounds have one very important thing in common -- they

both produce new blood vessels through the same mechanism, known as

angiogenesis, " he says. If you can block one response, you can block

the other, he says.

 

© 2001 WebMD Corporation. All rights reserved.