One of the components of green tea in the future can be an effective medicine for rheumatoid arthritis.

This is evidenced by the results of a new study published recently in the American journal Arthritis and Rheumatology.

Staff at the Washington State University in Spokene (WSU) found that epigallocatechin-3-gallate reduces inflammation and swelling in joints in arthritic mice.

With rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the immune system of patients affects their own connective tissue and joints, causing inflammation, swelling and pain, gradually destroying and deforming the joint. In the United States, there are 1.5 million RA patients per 320 million people, with women three times as likely as men.

"Currently, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, glucocorticoids, JAK-inhibitors. But some of these drugs are extremely expensive, others weaken the immune system, have a lot of serious side effects and are not suitable for long-term therapy. We want to solve the problem with less toxic natural substances, "says Dr. Salah-uddin Ahmed of WSU.

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a natural herbal substance from the group of catechins. In huge concentrations is present in the leaves of green tea, as well as in white tea. Possesses pronounced anti-inflammatory properties.

During experiments on rodents, scientists gave them EGCG for 10 days, after which they noted a significant decrease in inflammation and swelling of the affected joints. The fact is that epigallocatechin-3-gallate inhibits the activity of TAK1, a key signal protein that is a kind of mediator in inflammatory reactions.

What is important, epigallocatechin-3-gallate did not exert any influence on other cellular processes. This distinguishes EGCG from glucocorticoids or NSAIDs.

"Our study showed that selective suppression of TAK1 protein with epigallocatechin-3-gallate can be a rational alternative to modern methods of treating rheumatoid arthritis," states Dr. Ahmed.

New properties of the old drink.

By the way, scientists are not the first to surprise us with the healing properties of green tea. In 2014, Medical News Today reported that green tea can improve working memory, and even earlier it was found that this drink protects the intellect of the elderly.

However, not everything is so smooth and you should not rush to store fragrant leaves. Quite recently in the Journal of Functional Foods it was reported that an excess of green tea is able to disrupt fertility and development of offspring in fruit flies. It is possible that this may apply to a person.

medbe. en.