Herbal Information

Green Tea (Catechin) Ingredient May Promote Healthy Weight Loss - Aside from fighting heart disease, cancer, and other diseases, a new study shows that drinking green tea may also fight fat.

The study showed that people who drank a bottle of tea fortified with green tea extract every day for three months lost more body fat than those who drank a bottle of regular oolong tea.Researchers say the results indicate that substances found in green tea known as catechins may trigger weight loss by stimulating the body to burn calories and decreasing body fat. (more…)

Inability to sleep or disturbed sleep is a common complaint. Habitual or severe insomnia may require pharmaceutical intervention. However, there is some evidence to indicate that herbal preparations may be useful in mild to moderate cases, both in the form of tablets made of concentrated extracts and as simple herbal teas.

Valeriana officinalis, or valerian root, is one of the most common herbs used for insomnia. (more…)

There are a plethora of natural home remedies from brown sugar to eliminate heartburn to corn syrup to control nausea that can be used by those who want alternatives to over the counter medications. More than a tasty, hot beverage, green tea is an important part of home remedies from skin and teeth care to general preventative measures and everything in between. For specific examples to ways to use green tea to get excellent benefits read below.

Green Tea and Skin Care (more…)

Three cases of breast tissue enlargement in young boys, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, apparently resulted from the application of products containing lavender or tea tree oil.

The development of prominent breast tissue in men or adolescences, also known as “gynecomastia,” is extremely uncommon in prepubertal boys, the authors note. If it does occur in a young boy, it may be due to a condition that is disrupting hormone activity.

Co-author Dr. Clifford A. Bloch, a pediatric endocrinologist in Greenwood Village, Colorado, diagnosed three boys, ages 4, 7, and 10 years old, with gynecomastia. Blood levels of the patients’ steroids, which are essential for the formation of hormones, were normal. (more…)

An open Japanese study suggests that consumption of oolong tea (Camellia sinensis) helps speed clearance of recalcitrant atopic dermatitis lesions. The 118 study participants continued their usual dermatologic treatments but also drank oolong tea (10 g steeped in 1000 mL water a day, divided into three doses). Beneficial results were noted after one to two weeks, and 74 (63%) of the participants showed marked to moderate improvement of lesions after one month. After 6 months, 64 patients (54%) still demonstrated a good response to treatment. The study builds on animal research showing that oral administration of green, black, or oolong tea suppressed allergic skin reactions.

More good news for tea lovers — green tea may be as good for your health as it is to your taste buds, according to new study findings.

The data show that Japanese adults who consumed the most green tea over an 11-year period were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease or any other cause, except cancer, than were the less-frequent green tea drinkers.

“Green tea may prolong your life through reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease,” study author Dr. Shinichi Kuriyama, of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, in Sendai, told Reuters Health.

However, because this was an observational study, the debate on the effects of green tea on heart disease and cancer is not over, Kuriyama added.

Although laboratory and animal studies have shown that the polyphenols in green tea may be protective against cardiovascular disease and cancer, it is not clear if these findings extend to humans. The few clinical trials that have been conducted were small and yielded inconsistent results. (more…)