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Green Tea - Capability in
Reducing Blood Sugar
About 60 years ago, Dr. Minowada of Kyoto University noticed that sugar in the
urine of patients hospitalized for diabetes fell markedly during periods when
they participated in chanoyu (Tea Ceremony). He reported that powdered tea of
the type used in the traditional Tea Ceremony had the capability of lowering
blood sugar. Unfortunately, however, this important report was ignored due to
the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent postwar food shortages. But the
arrival of the gourmet era in recent years in Japan has led to heightened
interest in diabetes and the ability of green tea to reduce blood sugar.
The sugars and carbohydrate in our food are digested mainly in the duodenum,
converted there to glucose and then absorbed into the blood. The agent that
regulates the intake of blood sugar into the tissues is insulin, a chemical
secreted from Langerhans islets on the pancreas. Diabetes is a disease
characterized by insufficient secretion or improper functioning of insulin,
which hinders the proper absorption of glucose into the tissues and leads to a
high concentration of blood sugar that must eventually be excreted into the
urine. If this high concentration of blood sugar should continue for a long
period, it will affect the vascular system and cause a number of quite serious
diseases including atherosclerosis and retinal hemorrhages. Dr. Hara(#10) gave
dried green tea catechin in edible form to mice that were subject to hereditary
diabetes and verified a lowering of their blood sugar. In parallel experiments,
Dr. Shimizu(#11) gave an extract of green tea to mice and demonstrated that it
had the ability to lower blood sugar. It has also been shown that the polysaccharides in green tea possess the
same ability. Although these results come from animal tests, the evidence that
green tea catechin and polysaccharides can lower blood sugar In mice may also,
in light of Dr. Minowada's old report, apply to humans.
(#10) H. Asai, Y. Kuno, H. Ogawa, Y. Hara and K. Nakamura, Kiso to
Rinsshyo, 21, 163 (1987).
(#11) M. Shimizu et al., Yakugaku Zasshi, 108, 964 (1988).
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