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An ordinary cup of tea may be a powerful infection fighter

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By: Sean Moloughney

Editor, Nutraceuticals World

“An ordinary cup of tea may be a powerful infection fighter, a recent study suggests. Researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have found in tea a chemical that boosts the body’s defense fivefold against disease. They said the chemical primes immune system cells to attack bacteria, viruses and fungi and could, perhaps, be turned into a disease-fighting drug someday…In the study, [Dr. Jack F.] Bukowski and his co-authors isolated from ordinary black tea a substance called L-theanine. He said the substance is found as well in green and oolong tea, which also are processed from traditional tea tree leaves…After four weeks, they took more blood from the tea drinkers and then exposed that blood to E-coli bacteria. Bukowski said the immune cells in the specimens secreted five times more interferon than did blood cells from the same subjects before the weeks of tea drinking. Blood tests and bacteria challenges showed there was no change in the interferon levels of the coffee drinkers, he said.”

—Paul Recer, AP Science Writer, yahoonews.com, 4/22/03

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