Not Safe for Everybody: The Hidden Risk of Green Tea Extract - SciTechDaily

According to a caller study, though taking high-dose greenish beverage extract for an extended play whitethorn connection immoderate extortion against cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and benignant 2 diabetes, it whitethorn besides origin liver harm successful a tiny radical of people.

Who is astatine risk? Research from Rutgers, published successful The Journal of Dietary Supplements, provides the archetypal coagulated clue: 2 familial variants that foretell immoderate of the risk.

“Learning to foretell who volition endure liver harm is perchance important due to the fact that there’s increasing grounds that high-dose greenish beverage extract whitethorn person important wellness benefits for those who tin safely instrumentality it,” said Hamed Samavat, elder writer of the survey and an adjunct prof of nutrition sciences astatine the Rutgers School of Health Professions.

Using information from the Minnesota Green Tea Trial, a ample survey of greenish tea’s effect connected bosom cancer, the probe squad investigated whether radical with definite familial variations were much apt than others to amusement signs of liver accent aft a twelvemonth of ingesting 843 milligrams per time of the predominant antioxidant successful greenish tea, a catechin called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Researchers led by Laura Acosta, past a doctoral student, present a graduate, selected 2 familial variations successful question due to the fact that each controls the synthesis of an enzyme that breaks EGCG down. They selected the Minnesota Green Tea Trial due to the fact that it was a large, well-designed survey of a unsocial population. The year-long, placebo-controlled proceedings included much than 1,000 postmenopausal women and collected information astatine 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.

An investigation by researchers showed that aboriginal signs of liver harm were somewhat much communal than mean successful women with 1 saltation successful the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genotype and powerfully predicted by a saltation successful the uridine 5’-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase 1A4 (UGT1A4) genotype.

On average, participants with the high-risk UGT1A4 genotype saw the enzyme that indicates liver accent spell up astir 80 percent aft 9 months of consuming the greenish beverage supplement, portion those with low-risk genotypes saw the aforesaid enzyme spell up 30 percent.

“We’re inactive a agelong mode from being capable to foretell who tin safely instrumentality high-dose greenish beverage extract,” said Samavat, who noted the hazard of liver toxicity is lone associated with precocious levels of greenish beverage supplements and not with drinking greenish beverage oregon adjacent taking little doses of greenish beverage extract. “Variations successful this 1 genotype don’t wholly explicate the variations successful liver enzyme changes among survey participants. The afloat mentation astir apt includes a fig of antithetic familial variations and astir apt a fig of non-genetic factors.”

“Still,” Samavat continued, “we bash deliberation we person identified an important portion of the puzzle and taken a measurement toward predicting who tin safely bask immoderate wellness benefits that high-dose greenish beverage extract provides.”

Reference: “Hepatotoxicity with High-Dose Green Tea Extract: Effect of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase and Uridine 5’-Diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase 1A4 Genotypes” by Laura Acosta, Laura Byham-Gray, Mindy Kurzer and Hamed Samavat, 30 September 2022, Journal of Dietary Supplements.
DOI: 10.1080/19390211.2022.2128501