Green tea, multivitamins linked to younger age

By Tessa Salazar
Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE CHINESE have been sipping its benefits for centuries. Now the lowly tea leaf is getting the attention it deserves from the rest of the world.

The green tea leaf, in particular, has been keenly eyed by nutrition experts. Its direct and indirect health benefits are sweeping, including its ability to reduce one’s risk of contracting colorectal cancer and heart disease, as well as promoting healthier bones.

Green tea contains plant compounds called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which has been found to block the action of an enzyme that breaks down noradrenaline. Noradrenaline regulates many metabolic functions, including the heart rate and the release of energy from fat. So by allowing more EGCG to stick around may actually boost metabolism, says certified nutrition specialist Jonny Bowden, PhD, in his book “The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth.”

Rich in flavonoids

Green tea leaves are rich in flavonoids and other compounds that may possess potent antioxidant properties. “Recent studies lend merit to the already substantial evidence that the polyphenols in green tea have anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory properties,” states certified nutritional consultant Phyllis A. Balch in her book “Prescription for Dietary Wellness.”

Recently, a more tantalizing study links green tea, as well as multivitamins, to gaining a younger biological age.

The article “Tea consumers may have younger biological age” by Stephen Daniells published online August 25 at nutraingredients.com states the Chinese University of Hong Kong reporting findings that cells of regular tea drinkers appear to exhibit a younger biological age than cells of non-drinkers (http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Tea-consumers-may-have-younger-biological-age).

The article states that the researchers, led by Ruth Chan, noticed the telomeres of people who drank an average of three cups of tea per day were about 4.6 kilobases longer than people who drank an average of a quarter of a cup a day. This average difference in the telomere length corresponds to “approximately a difference of 5 years of life,” according to the researchers.

Chinese green tea

Chan also told Nutraingredients.com that the data showed “a majority of Chinese tea consumed by our subjects were of green tea.” (The study’s findings are based on the telomere lengths of 976 Chinese men and 1,030 Chinese women aged over 65. The participants’ dietary habits were evaluated using a food frequency questionnaire).

Asked by Inquirer Health for his reaction, biochemistry, molecular and nutritional oncology specialist Doctor Romulo de Villa said the results of the study showed that longevity among green tea drinkers may, indeed, be due to the maintenance of telomere length and telomere sequence integrity of the DNA. He noted, however, that length and sequence were distinct.

“I agree with the experts that telomere length may be a marker of biological aging, meaning the shorter the length of the telomere the older the cell. However, there is no correlation of the length of the telomere with oxidative damage to the telomere sequence because length and sequence are two different things. Oxidative damage to the telomere may trigger early death of the cell or earlier apoptosis instead of a later time when the length of the telomere has been sufficiently shortened by successive rounds of cell proliferation, triggering apoptosis,” he said.

Green tea capsules

“It’s true that green tea contains 30 to 40 percent of water-extractable polyphenols. There are pharmaceutical-grade green tea capsules containing 97 percent polyphenols which I am personally taking daily,” he stressed.

De Villa, who is currently the dean of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila College of Medicine, added: “The finding that telomere length was longer in regular multivitamin users encourages me to continue taking my multivitamin, multimineral and multiphytonutrient food supplement daily.”

Daniells’ article also cited that recent researchers from the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences reported that telomere length was longer in regular multivitamin users in their cohort of 586 women aged between 35 and 74.