Talk:Potential effects of tea on health

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To-do list for Potential effects of tea on health:

Here are some tasks you can do:
  • Verify: Find sources for all unsourced statements
  • Cleanup: Work external links into body of text as references, and eliminate external links section

Contents

[edit] Article origin

The original text of this article was cut out of the green tea article. For history of the original text see the green tea history. --Oska 01:21, Jul 12, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Source

The source for my recent addition regarding metabolism is Scienceagogo.com 1999

Sam [Spade] 19:44, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Detailed Greentealovers reference

  • greentealovers.com/greenteahealthcatechin.htm The Ingredients In Green Tea.
  • greentealovers.com/greenteahealthcancer.htm Effects of green tea on cancer and the studies on Green Tea and their effect on various cancers.]
  • greentealovers.com/greenteahealthotherconditions.htm Research on the effects of green tea on a variety of health issues: heart, pancrease, brain, kidney, circulation, strokes, anti-oxidant/inflammatory/bacterial/viral properties of green tea.]
  • greentealovers.com/greenteahealthwhitetea.htm Research on the effects of white tea on a variety of health issues: Colon, Skin and its Antiviral/Antibacterial properties.
  • greentealovers.com/greenteahealthdietweightloss.htm Studies on green tea's effects on weight loss, cholesterol, body weight, increases in metabolism.]
  • greentealovers.com/greenteahealthantioxidants.htm The Antioxidant properties of Green Tea.
I think it is better if direct references to the original authors work are put rather than to Green Tea Lovers, because journal references do not move with time. It would be better if someone with knowledge on the subject did this to select the best that suit the article? --Iateasquirrel 17:30, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
I think the links to Greentealovers should be removed. How is a tea dealer's website an acceptable reference source about the health benefits of tea? Even if they accurately summarized some scientific studies, how do we know aren't cherry picking them? The links in the article look suspiciously more like search engine optimization than references at the moment. And a glance at a non-commercial site, which also cites scientific studies, paints a considerably more ambiguous picture about the health benefits of tea. —Veyklevar 09:19, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Plaguarism?

I copied and pasted a few paragraphs from this article into google, and it seems that large portion of this article is pretty much an exact copy of an article from the June 1999 Life Extension magazine, which was reprinted here Is this okay? --Cabazon 05:04, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

No, that's not okay. We need to revert the article to before the point where the copyrighted material was inserted, if anybody can figure out where that is. —Veyklevar 06:28, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
As far as I can tell we would have to revert it to about this version to avoid copyright problems. Would anyone like to double-check me on that before I make such a major change? I don't think it's such a big loss since large portions of this article as it stands now read like advertisements. —Veyklevar 08:56, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
Complete silence. Well either everyone agrees with me, or I'm the only person who reads this article. I'm going to proceed with reversion. —Veyklevar 01:00, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
I agree. I've kind of given up with the article, until Wikipedia has some strong "stable version" feature. It's such a magnet for spam and misinformation. Thanks for the revert. --Wikimol 08:38, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone find the vandalism here?

[edit] Sugar?

Since there's a section on the effect of milk on tea, shouldn't there be one on the effect of sugar on tea? or have there not been any studies done on that?--69.120.63.248 03:37, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Move page to "Potential health effects of tea"

Why I think the page should be moved: #1. Many effects are still being researched, evidence is not yet conclusive, so we should emphasis that the effects are not yet certain. Secondly, there seem to be a few drawbacks associated with drinking tea, such as a reduced iron intake (which can be quite harmful for people with an already low iron blood level. I think it isn't a good idea to create a separate page for these disadvantages. Sijo Ripa 14:44, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree Abtract 18:04, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Latest findings on theanine

I added info and link to Sept. '07 announcement regarding latest findings on theanine and its influence on alpha brain-waves. Balance2214 21:51, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Preventing HIV

How do you prevent HIV through a strong immune system? I mean, if you have the virus, you've got it. The tea won't come and delete the virus. Does the sentence actually mean it can prevent Aids? Or how does it then prevent HIV? — Adriaan (TC) 10:25, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure you know that no cure for HIV exists. Once you have it, you'll die with it. But 'having HIV' is defined by having a certain count of the virus in your system (or more precisely, by T cell count, which is a proxy for virus count). 'Prevent' HIV infection is what the source claims, which by definition means stopping a healthy system from becoming infected, not making an HIV-positive(i.e. thoroughly infected) person healthy again. Our immune system is capable of destroying small amounts of the HIV virus, by the normal mechanism that it defeats e.g. the common cold. A stronger immune system will be able to fight off higher counts of the virus before being overwhelmed and infected. Not that I actually believe that tea is effective in preventing HIV, I'm just explaining why the section accurately describes the source's claim.-₪-Hemidemisemiquaver (talk) 11:22, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
I agree the statement is very poorly worded. It gives the reader the impression that tea can act to prevent HIV. Which is compeltely absurd.JHJPDJKDKHI! (talk) 04:01, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
Agree, but as long as the article is worded "A 2007 Study by X found that..." and the study isn't total crackpot, it describes reality.-₪-Hemidemisemiquaver (talk) 17:23, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Statement seems abit false

"A recent study appearing in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology stated that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) found in Green Tea can help to boost one's immune system, therefore helping to prevent HIV"

Surely they're not suggesting tea can prevent HIV, but rather slow down progress toward AIDS.JHJPDJKDKHI! (talk) 04:00, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

see the thread above this. The study is cited (it was cited via a news article, going to add the cite to the actual study) and its claims are more or less accurately described, though the study is less about strengthening the immune system than protecting the immune system cells by competing for the same binding sites on cells that HIV uses. It may not be true, but it certainly meets WP:RS. 'Preventing HIV' is relative, and anything that reduces the likelihood of binding to T-cells will in theory both reduce the spread rate and increase the watershed virus count before full infection. Certainly it is possible for the immune system to completely defeat a very small number of HIV in your system. If, hypothetically, two identical people were going to be infected with two identical very small amounts of identical HIV virus which was marginally above the level that would infect that person, the paper conjectures that if one took megadoses of EGCG prior to infection, it's possible (according to the study) that he might not contract HIV while his counterpart would. Dicey claims, yes, but it's cited, and debates over plausibility are original research.-₪-Hemidemisemiquaver (talk) 17:52, 10 December 2007 (UTC)