As our community is becoming richer, people are more health sensitive nowadays. In term of drink, green tea is considered as the healthiest drink as it is not only has the rehydrate effect, but it is also flavonoid rich that able to protect our body against heart disease.
Investigation on green tea drinkers illustrate that they are far little vulnerable to a wide range of sickness, from virus infection to chronic degenerative illness like stroke, cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis.
Research shows that green tea has incredibly high concentration of flavonoids (antioxidant) including catechins and their derivatives. Antioxidant is the biological event that prevents the oxidation which will develop highly reactive free radicals. Flavonoids substance consists of more than 1/3 of the green tea dry weight. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the largest prolific catechin in all green tea. It has the upmost antioxidant activity of all green tea's catechins and hence is believed to act the most vital role in the green tea's anticancer and antioxidant effect. Green tea EGCG is so rich that a cup of green tea might have 20-35mg of it.
In our arteries, there is a one cell thick lining that behaves as the interface between the bloodstream and the wall of the artery where blood plaques will form, this is called arterial endothelium. When heart disease happens, a form of enzyme will speed up the production of free radicals in the artery endothelium, thus escalates the level of free radicals in arteries sharply. Green tea EGCG will inhibit the enzymes required in the production of the free radicals and thus protects the endothelium from damaged by free radical. For this reason green tea is playing an important role in preventing cardiovascular disease.
EGCG also serves in curbing the death of heart muscle cells following ischemia/reperfusion injury, by blocking the stimulation of inflammation compounds (STAT-1) that will induce oxidative injury which kills cardiovascular cell in reperfusion injury.
Moreover, cancer cells require enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) to create DNA and multiply. EGCG will interfere with the DHFR and is practically stopping the development of cancer cells.
Furthermore, EGCG can also facilitate the recovery of injured heart cells, and therefore allowing quick recovery of tissues and reducing organs damage.
In conclusion, green tea EGCG has extensive benefit in helping heart disease prevention as well as in heart attack damage healing. So for those who are suffering from heart disease and those who are health conscious, green tea is the best choice of beverage for them. Drinking few cups of green tea, specifically decaf green tea a day rather than decaffeinated coffee will undoubtedly guarantee our long term health.
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