Green tea reduces risk of prostate cancer

November 5, 2003

Drinking green tea can dramatically reduce the risk of men contracting prostate cancer, a study by Australian researchers has discovered.

The new study, carried out by scientists at Perth's Curtin University and Zhejiang Cancer Hospital in China, discovered men who drink green tea daily have one-third the risk of prostate cancer compared with non-tea drinkers,

The habitual drinking of the tea over many years can reduce the risk even more, according to the study to be published in the International Journal of Cancer.

Professor Colin Binns, from Curtin's school of public health, led the Australian side of the study along with researchers Dr Andy Lee and Le Jian.

Dr Lee said green tea was the most prevalent in China, but black tea could be as beneficial.

"In Australia the incidence of prostate cancer is very high, but in China the incidence is very low. That is the reason that we thought there is something these people do over there that is different from here." Dr Lee said.

"We accounted for all the other risk factors, such as smoking and alcohol, but even after all that the effect of tea still stood out."

The study compared 130 Chinese men with prostate cancer with 274 men without the cancer, using China because it has a larger population of people who drink only tea, while Australian men tend to drink a variety of beverages.

Dr Lee said the beneficial effects could also be enhanced because the Chinese tend to drink their tea pure.

"Experimental findings show the antioxidants in the green tea are slightly more than in other types," Dr Lee said.

"Drinking the tea directly means that the tea will not interact with other substances like milk and sugar."

Green tea has long been valued by Chinese as a natural remedy, with powerful antioxidants called catechins shown in studies to fight viruses and slow aging.

Traditionally it has been used to improve digestion, boost energy and help with liver detoxification, whilst also said to reduce high blood pressure and lower blood sugar.

The findings of the latest Curtin study followed a discovery by the same research team that drinking green tea reduced the risk of ovarian cancer in women.

Dr Lee said their studies have also recently shown that drinking the tea may prevent the contraction of ovarian cancer as well as helping those already suffering the disease.

"Early findings show that the tea also enhances survival of those women with ovarian cancer," Dr Lee said.