Reader Chunking Huang sent a link with his face on 2025-2-6. He said:
"Hello Professor: I accidentally searched this study, and I was surprised to mention that "green tea extract increases the risk of cancer in women's children". I wonder if the analysis is correct?"The link he sent was a summary article published in Cochrane on March 2, 2020. Green tea is used for cancer prevention (Chinese version), and the whole sentence he asked was "especially the results of experimental research indicate that supplementing green tea extract can reduce the risk of prostate cancer, but increases the number of women. The risk of cancer in the science of science. ”
The problem lies in the four words "Experience Research".
The original English version of this summary is Green tea (Camellia sinensis) for the prevention of cancer, while the part relative to "experimental studies" is “experimental studies” The correct translation of
experimental studies should be "experimental research", that is, "animal model research", or "non-clinical research", or "non-human research".
In fact, the only green tea study in human breast cancer patients was the safety of green tea extract supplementation in postmenopausal women at risk for breast cancer: results of the Minnesota Green Tea Trial, published in 2015.
Its conclusion: Daily 1315 mg green tea extract has a small and short adverse effect on a small number of research subjects, but is safe for most white women to stop taking women. Hepatic enzyme anomalies are often identified as the main factor related to the extraction of green tea extracts.
In other words, the most important adverse effect of green tea extract is its potential hepatotoxicity. (Note: "Green Tea Extract" is the commonly known "Green Tea" or "Green Tea". Please see how tea can fight the new coronavirus and reduce the symptoms of COVID-19? Apigenin without apigenin, four anti-cancer treasures? Everything is your own love, as well as anti-cancer food and nonsense)
In fact, the supplements I published a few days ago are booming, and liver poisoning is also booming: In 2024, researchers found that 1,500 All Americans take compounds known to be toxic to liver: ginger, ashwagandha, black cohosh, vine yellow fruit, green tea extract and red koji.
The earliest paper on the potential hepatotoxicity of green tea extract was the Liver toxicity of Camellia sinensis dry etanolic extract published in 2003, and many subsequent studies have repeatedly confirmed it. For example, Hepatotoxicity with High-Dose Green Tea Extract: Effect of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase and Uridine 5′-Diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase 1A4 Genotypes (Effect of high-dose green tea extract: 5′-Effect of genotype of glucosyltransferase 1A4).
Please pay attention to the "High Dosage Green Tea Extract" in this article.
The safety of green tea and green tea extract consumption in adults – Results of a systematic review (Safety of green tea and green tea extract in adults – Systematic review results), published in 2018, there is a sentence in it: Yes 159 Review of adverse event data from human body pre-study results consistent with toxicology evidence, that is, limited-area dense, scattered green tea agents can cause hepatotoxicity when injected in large quantities, but will not be consumed as part of the food.
LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, published in 2020, contains this sentence: Green tea is a popular and common beverage with extracts found in many herbs and dietary supplements. Green tea extracts and rare large amounts of green tea are associated with clinically apparent acute liver injury, including acute liver failure, requiring acute liver transplantation or death.
So, if you only drink green tea, it will not be hepatotoxic, but if you take green tea extract supplement, it may be hepatotoxic.Can interested readers further view the comments from reader Elliot in health supplements that will kill you?
The relationship between food and medicine, please share with me a little bit of information. Any ingredient is taken under a food prototype, which generally has a lower risk and is often better than being taken from health foods. For example, green tea is used to drink for daily life, which may be healthier in the long run, but green tea extracts health foods, but there are many cases of acute liver failure. The ginger yellow (the main ingredient of yellow curry) and featherba (the main ingredient of brown curry) are integrated into curry and Masala cuisine, which is also a ring of healthy diet and delicious cuisine. However, as supplements, hepatotoxic records are also recorded. In Chinese medicine, wolfberry is used as a dish or brewed with tea. It has recorded a lot of nourishing effects in medicine, and it is very useful and delicious. However, recently, I often see health foods such as wolfberry essence, wolfberry filling, and wolfberry stew in supermarkets all over the world. There is no evidence of any harm, but I personally avoid it. There are so many examples of food and medicine related to it that there are so many … maybe it is my prejudice, Michael Pollan's classic proverb “ Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” (Eat food, don't eat too much, mainly plant-based) I remember it. Health foods are mostly focused on high dose/high unit of certain ingredients. People also expect the higher the dose, the more effective it is and the higher the CP value. However, there are unknown, long-term and other derivative risks behind too much good stuff.A variety of ingredients seem to have a certain degree of long-term benefit under prototypes. However, after processing (condensation, extraction, hydrolysis, distillation, extraction, spraying, molding, molecular structure modification, etc.) is made into various (high dose/high unit) health foods (regardless of whether the ingredients are real, most of the sampling does not match the mark), they are considered as drugs, and their dose, side effects, risks, toxicity, and interactions are evaluated, which is not so safe and harmless. In the pathological reports of acute liver failure and kidney failure, unregulated health foods (especially herbal medicines) are often the main cause of the disease.
Original text: Is green tea poisonous?Responsible editor: Gu Zihuan