Dr. Tanya McEachern, Naturopathic Doctor

Green Tea is touted as one of the healthiest beverages on the plane

Most of Green tea’s (aka Camellia sinensis) benefits are due to the fact that it’s an extremely potent antioxidant. This means that it helps neutralize harmful free radicals & toxins that would otherwise damage your cells and increase your risk of conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

It’s also highly anti-inflammatory, and inflammation is at the root of many chronic health illnesses, in addition to being a frequent cause of pain.

Here are the top 5 instances that I recommend Green Tea:

1. Weight Loss – although green tea won’t exercise or diet for you (these are unavoidable if looking to lose weight), green tea has been shown to have a beneficial effect on metabolism AND modulate appetite. It’s often part of my weight loss protocols along with food sensitivity testing, specific exercise instructions for fat loss, regular vitamin B12 injections, acupuncture and hormone balancing.

2. Skin Health – because it’s a potent antioxidant, it can help with treatment and prevent of wrinkles, sagging skin and fine lines. I will often pair green tea with Cosmetic Facial Acupuncture treatments.

3. Crohn’s Disease – green tea inhibits pathways in the body related to COX2 and LOX inflammatory enzymes, which are often implicated in this auto-immune disease. Many over the counter pain relievers work the exact same way. Green tea will exert anti-histamine action as well, further reducing destructive inflammatory symptoms.

4. As an Alternative to Coffee – sometimes, when appropriate, I will recommend that a patient take a bit of a break from their daily Java. This can include times where I feel they need to detox, if they have severe hot flashes, if they have anxiety, or difficulty sleeping. Although green tea leaves also contain caffeine, they contain many other compounds which help detoxify the caffeine for the body, instead of fully relying on the body’s liver enzymes to do this (as coffee does). Swapping a green tea in for a coffee is much easier than going cold-turkey with your morning jolt.

5. Parkinson’s Disease – as a brain-protector, green tea can be useful in really any condition where the central nervous system is affected, such as Parkinson’s. Green tea contains beneficial compounds that actually cross the blood brain barrier, thereby reducing neuro-inflammation. A nice side effect of green tea supplementation is often clearer thinking.

It can be hard to get enough green tea simply from drinking it as a tea in order to have the benefits listed above. Typically, I recommend it in a caffeine free capsule delivery system when using it to promote health and well-being. Quality and quantity, as with all herbal medicine, is key. The best green tea supplements are made from the young leaves, harvested early in the Spring. Click my booking link to learn more.