Green Tea: Tastes Great, Less Swelling
Rheumatoid arthritis sufferers will be seeing green if they know what’s good for them, suggests a University of Michigan study on the medicinal effects of green tea.
Green tea contains a compound that “suppresses inflammatory products in the connective tissue of people with rheumatoid arthritis,” according to the study presented at an Experimental Biology 2007 meeting in Washington, D.C.
“Our research is a very promising step in the search for therapies for the joint destruction experienced by people who have rheumatoid arthritis,” says lead study researcher, Salah-uddin Amed, Ph.D., an investigator at the U-M Health System’s rheumatology division.
U-M researchers believe the compound or its molecules could be synthetically reproduced from green tea to alleviate the pain and swelling cause the arthritis.
Rheumatoid arthritis impacts 2.1 million Americans, mostly women, according to the Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation. It’s characterized by joint swelling and can cause long-term joint damage and loss of function.
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