This Month:
- Green Tea as a Summer Drink
- Green Tea Can Give You a Healthy Heart
- Green Tea & Colorectal Cancer
- Flavonoids Reduce Lung Cancer Risk
- Green Tea Protection for Sleep Apnoea

**NEW Green Tea Flavors
Green tea is not just good hot, Its excellent cold as well. We have instructions to brew green tea cold but we also have naturally favored green tea that is just *PERFECT* as an iced brew. **HERE**.

Lots of New Teaware and Tea
During the holidays we expanded our tea and teaware offerings significantly. Please check out our new premium chinese green tea, jasmine green tea, health teas, rooibos and expanded premium white tea sections. We now carry 75 different healthy green and white teas as well as rooibos and matte blends. We have also significantly expanded our limited edition Japanese artisan teaset, teapot, teacup offerings. We also offer a few new filters as well.

A cup of green tea a day could help keep your heart healthy, a study shows.

The drink was found to widen the artery which runs from the shoulder to the elbow by 4 per cent within 30 minutes - reducing the risk of blood clots.

This is a good indicator of improved blood flow around the body, says a report in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. It is the first time green tea has been shown to have a short-term beneficial effect on the large arteries.

Dr Nikolaos Alexopoulos and colleagues at the 1st Cardiology Department, Athens Medical School, used ultrasound scanning to measure the performance of the brachial artery - which runs from the shoulder to the elbow, and is a good indicator of blood flow around the body.

A team of healthy volunteers were given green tea, caffeine or hot water to drink on three separate occasions. Measurements of the brachial artery were taken at three stages after they drank their beverage.

The researchers found the artery expanded by four per cent 30 minutes after volunteers drank green tea. Caffeine or hot water had no effect.

Dilation of the artery shows better functioning of the endothelium, the layer of cells lining blood arteries that stops clots forming.

Previous research suggests black tea improves short and long-term endothelial performance, but this is the first time green tea has been shown to have a short-term beneficial effect on the large arteries.

Another study has already shown that green tea reverses endothelial dysfunction in smokers.

Green tea is traditionally consumed in China and Japan and differs from black tea in that it is not fermented before drying.

This fermentation process appears to reduce the content of flavonoids - beneficial antioxidants - by up to 90 per cent, which is why green tea is believed to offer different health benefits to black tea.

Researcher Dr Charalambos Vlachopoulos said 'These findings have important clinical implications. Tea consumption has been associated with reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in several studies.

'Green tea is consumed less in the Western world than black tea, but it could be more beneficial because of the way it seems to improve endothelial function.

'Recent studies have also shown potent anticarcinogenic effects of green tea, attributed to its antioxidant properties.'

Other research shows drinking green tea lowers 'bad' cholesterol and blood pressure, and reduces harmful liver enzymes.

Drinking green tea could help stave off cancer, with a study showing just four cups of green tea a day reverses cell damage in heavy smokers that might lead to the development of tumours.

Lynne Garton a member of the industry-backed Tea Advisory Panel and a nutritionist, said 'This exciting piece of research takes us one step further in understanding the role of flavonoids in heart health.

'While the focus of the study was the action of green tea on endothelial function, black
tea, as enjoyed by the majority of the UK population, has shown similar results.

'This is not surprising as although the types of flavonoids in green tea and black tea may differ, it is thought that the amounts present in a cup are similar.

'Evidence is now suggesting that drinking around 3 to 4 cups of tea a day (with or without milk) may help reduce the risk of developing heart disease and studies such as these are important in helping us understand the possible mechanisms of action.

'As part of an overall, healthy balanced diet, this research highlights yet another good reason to drink tea.'

REFERENCE:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1031192/How-daily-cup-green-tea-healthy-heart-minutes.html

Smokers should increase their intake of tea and vegetables.

Exciting new research shows that smokers may be able to reduce their risk of lung cancer by as much as 50% by increasing their intake of antioxidant flavonoids—epicatechin, catechins, quercetin and kaempferol—found in vegetables and tea.

UCLA researchers found that several types of flavonoids are associated with a reduced risk of lung cancers in smokers. Specifically, they found that:

- A 10 mg per day increase in epicatechin intake reduced the risk by 36%. Epicatechin is found in tea, chocolate, grapes and blueberries.

- A 4 mg increase in catechin intake reduced the risk by 51%. Tea is among the best sources.

- A 9 mg increase in quercetin intake reduced the risk by 35%. Quercetin is concentrated in the skins of fruits and vegetables. Apples and onions are especially good sources.

- A 2 mg increase in kaempferol intake reduced the risk by 32%. Good sources include tea, onions, kale, broccoli and leeks. (Cui, Y. et al. Cancer. May 15, 2008, 112(10): 2241-2248.)

The Anti-Aging Bottom Line: Although expert advice is clearly to avoid tobacco smoke altogether, the results suggest smokers could benefit from upping their intake of flavonoid-rich foods including vegetables, tea, red wine and soybeans.

REFERENCE FOR FULL ARTICLE SEE:
http://www.stopagingnow.com/news/
news_flashes/4308/
Flavonoids-Reduce-Lung-Cancer-Risk

According to the latest animal research findings from the US, antioxidant-rich extracts from green tea may reduce the effects of oxidative stress caused by breathing problems, such as Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), while people are sleeping. Supplements of green tea extracts may counter the cognitive deficits that may occur, suggests a new study with rats...

According to the latest animal research findings from the US, antioxidant-rich extracts from green tea may reduce the effects of oxidative stress caused by breathing problems, such as Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), while people are sleeping.

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) occurs when people stop breathing while they are sleeping, often for a minute or more, and this may happen many hundreds of times during a single night's sleep. It is usually caused when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. As such, people with this disorder are said to be at risk of oxidative stress and exhibit changes in their brain tissue in areas involved in learning and memory.

Supplements of green tea extracts may counter the cognitive deficits that may occur, suggests a new study with rats.

If the results of the study can be repeated in humans, green tea and its extracts may offer a potential interventional strategy for people with the disorder.

Lead researcher David Gozal, from the University of Louisville, said: "OSA has been increasingly recognized as a serious and frequent health condition with potential long-term morbidities that include learning and psychological disabilities." Assessing the results

Human OSA was modelled in rats by intermittently depriving the animals of oxygen during 12-hour "night" cycles for 14 days - intermittent hypoxia (IH). The researchers divided the 106 male rats into two groups, with one group assigned to receive drinking water containing green tea polyphenols.

The University of Louisville researchers, in collaboration with scientists from Soroka University Medical Center, then tested the animals for markers of inflammation and oxidative stress, in addition to using a water maze to test their performance in spatial learning and memory tasks.

They found that rats that received the green tea polyphenol (GTP)- supplemented water performed significantly better in a water maze than the rats that drank plain water.

In addition the researchers found that levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), a reactive carbonyl compound and a well-established marker of oxidative stress, were 40 per cent lower in the GTP-supplemented animals.

Commenting on the findings Gozal said: "GTP-[supplemented] rats exposed to IH displayed significantly greater spatial bias for the previous hidden platform position, indicating that GTPs are capable of attenuating IH-induced spatial learning deficits."

"Because oxidative processes underlie neurocognitive deficits associated with IH, the potential therapeutic role of GTP in sleep- disordered breathing deserves further exploration," he added.

Antioxidant activity

The benefits of the green tea extracts were attributed to the antioxidant properties of green tea polyphenols. Gozal explained: "Recent studies have demonstrated the neuroprotective activity of GTP in animal models of neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease."

Green tea is said to contain over four times the concentration of antioxidant catechins than black tea (green tea leaves that have been oxidized by fermentation), about 70 mg catechins per 100 mL compared to 15 mg per 100 mL for black tea.

The four primary polyphenols found in fresh tealeaves are epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epicatechin

REFERENCE FOR FULL ARTICLE SEE:
http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/natural-health-articles/sleeping-problems/green-tea-protection-sleep-apnoea-01030.html