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Protect Yourself with Lycopene and Green Tea
MEN’S HEALTH
Prostate Cancer
Seek the protection of Lycopene and Green Tea
By Mark Isaac Thyss
Garden of Healing®
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer found in men in developed countries. It is the most frequent type of cancer in American men. In 2002, more than 30,000 men died of the disease. The risk of prostate cancer increases rapidly after age 50, and the tumor is especially prevalent in Western populations.
Because the tumor is often relatively slow growing, most men die “with prostate cancer” as opposed to “of prostate cancer”. Even so, this form of cancer can cause significant suffering because of such symptoms as urinary retention and bone pain.
Due to the large impact of prostate cancer, there is great interest in new methods of prevention and treatment. For example, men can lower the risk of prostate cancer by drinking green tea and eating foods containing high amounts of lycopene.
No studies have assessed the appropriate age to begin lycopene supplement therapy. Such a study would be difficult to conduct; most lycopene consumption originates from the diet, a variable nearly impossible to control over long periods. Clearly, getting protection from the foods you eat is ideal.
The latest dietary guidelines call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day, depending on one’s caloric intake. The 5-a-Day message is now quietly changing to 5 to 9 a day, and this is supported in part by the National Cancer Institute.
In the case of heart disease, increasing fruit and vegetable intake by as little as one serving per day can have a real impact.
You can find lycopene in supplement form, but first start by eating lycopene-rich foods such as tomatoes, grapefruit and watermelon.
To investigate the possible joint effect of lycopene and green tea on prostate cancer risk, a case-control study was conducted in Hangzhou, China, with 130 prostate cancer patients and 274 hospital controls. Prostate cancer risk was reduced with increased consumption of green tea, and together, lycopene and green tea have an even stronger preventive effect than either component taken separately. Therefore, the protective effect from tea and lycopene consumption was synergistic.
Many studies suggests that habitual tea drinking can reduce your risk of many diseases, and as green tea is so simple to use, this is a good place to start.
So much information is available about the right things to do and foods to eat, but the central question remains, will you do any of them?
Let simplicity serve you; make one change until it has become part of your new regular routine. How about green tea?
Even though green tea comes from the same tea plant as black teas, they are not the same. Traditional black tea has been processed in a manner that removes the ingredients which work to reduce prostate cancer.
It is well known that Asian men have a low incidence of prostate cancer, and noteworthy, is that green tea has always been a part of their diet. Green tea is nothing new to the American diet; the new thing is making a change, any change.
It might be difficult to study, purchase and then integrate a number of new prostate-cancer specific foods into your diet, but making a cup of green tea is easy and it can go a long, long way to improving your health.
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