Health benefits: Chinese vs. Japanese

[AdamMY]

Churng,

I do have something to say regarding medications...

If Tylenol and Aspirin, and Ibuprofen where released today they would not be approved for sale, in fact the only reason they still are for sale is because they have been around for such a long time with relatively little actual side effects, and they do what they are meant to do wonderfully.

The reason why they would not be approved today is because its mostly guess work on how those medications achieve those results. I mean we know the effects they have on the body which in turn produce the results we want, but no one actually knows how those medications produce those changes.

I sorta feel tea is the same way, people can guess all day at what it is in tea which produces benefits, but we may never actually know exactly what those are doing to our body to produce the results we all know.

[silverneedles]

the mechanism for aspirin is well known, and while acetaminophen may not be well detailed it is known in general.

meds are approved because they are "proven" in studies they have endpoint benefit more than placebo.

doctors use meds to help patients even if they are not approved by the FDA for that particular treatment.

"tea" as treatment/prevention for disease? tea dose is not standardized to be able to say this cup of tea contains so and so, therefore if you buy "XYZ region yunnan green tea" we are sure your acne or pneumonia or dental carries will get better.

[beachape]

Yeah just as a trivia point, its acetaminophen with the mystery mechanism. The other two are cox inhibitors, or "cox blockers" as I like to refer to them as. And they are better understood.

But fortunately a mechanism of action isn't necessary to prove effectiveness. As long as the drugs are shown safe, efficacious, and effective then you're set. Gotta do lots of research though. A mechanism sure helps, but unfortunately a lot of drugs with known mechanisms have unexpected side-effects

As for tea, it tastes great, makes you feel good, and doesn't cause any problems. Even if it doesn't have proven miracle drug properties I don't need any convincing.

[puerhking]

Well what do you know.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8411605.stm

interestingly my father is a life long coffee drinker but that did not bring down his blood sugar levels.

[Margules]

Well what do you know.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8411605.stm

interestingly my father is a life long coffee drinker but that did not bring down his blood sugar levels.

From your article:

Dr Victoria King, of Diabetes UK, said: "Without full information about what other factors may be influencing the type 2 diabetes risk of the studies' participants - such as their physical activity levels and diet - as well as what the active ingredient in tea or coffee appears to be, we cannot be sure what, if anything, this observed effect is down to.

"What we can be sure of is that the development of type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle, which means that many cases could be prevented by keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables."

The link you posted cites a survey study, you have to be very careful how much and what you read into them. As the article mentions, type 2 diabetes is highly dependent on lifestyle factors and diet, which is probably quite different for the average tea drinker and the population in general.

For example, someone who drinks four to eight cups of tea daily probably consumes a lot less soda than the average population, and while the evidence that tea prevents diabetes is entirely circumstantial, the evidence that soda increases the risk for the disease is quite strong.

The fact that decaf coffee had the strongest benefit is quite telling, as it really isn't that similar to tea.

As I said before, I'm not saying that there isn't any health benefit to drinking tea, but we aren't sure what exactly they are, and we certainly aren't sure which teas are the healthiest. (In fact, I don't remember anyone speaking up to say that decaf coffee was better for you than green tea, but that's exactly what this study found)

A lot of people have spoken up with anecdotal evidence, but in the end, thats all it is. And history has repeatedly shown that anecdotal evidence is an extremely poor predictor for the efficacy of medical treatments.

[beachape]

Popular media likes to distort scientific studies as I'm sure you're well aware. Association does not mean causation. While most of the time it is just about benign things like why people should eat more chocolate or drink more coffee, sometimes it becomes problematic. Thats how the whole vaccination and autism thing got started. More people have autism, more people are getting vaccinated. Well more people are listening to pop music too...does that mean that lady gaga is causing autism? I think that is more reasonable.

[TeaPeople]

I try different teas, see how they make my body feel. You usually know if a food is good for you or not for you. I think it's the same with tea. If the tea makes you feel good, drink it. If you think its helping you heal keep drinking it. Listen to your body and your intuition more than anything else. Tea has way way way less side effect that medications have. I am not saying that western medicine is bad. I use it when I need it, in addition to Chinese medicine and a healthy diet (which includes tea) and exercise.

[brad4419]

tea=good/yummy

I've always thought matcha would be the healthiest followed by Japanese and then Chinese. That being said I drink more Chinese greens because there my favorite. Although I love Japanese greens as well.