American Wellness Network Research Report
by Lyle Hurd
Researchers find a specific combination of green tea compounds reduce the incidence and duration of cold and flu symptoms
Editor’s Note: These reports are a continuing series of articles featuring research evidencing the benefits of branded nutritional ingredients in the prevention and treatment of disease; and their ability to protect against the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.
 Fewer cold and flu symptoms are reported by otherwise healthy people who tried a specific blend of compounds for three months.
This cold and flu season, while those around you are coughing, sneezing and feeling miserable, you might be able to avoid getting sick altogether or at least reduce the number of days you experience symptoms by an average of 36 percent.
A clinical trial completed by researchers at University of Florida and the Nutritional Science Research Institute on a product called Immune Guard, has now clinically proven that a specific combination of ingredients found in green tea, including the amino acid L-theanine (Suntheanine) and decaffeinated catechins, including epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG; Sunphenon) can enhance the body’s immune system, resulting in a decreased incidence and duration of cold and flu symptoms. The findings, which appeared in the October 2007 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of the American College of Nutrition. concluded, “This proprietary Camellia sinensis formulation (CSF) is an effective preventative for cold and flu systems, and for enhancing the innate immune response. Widespread use of this CSF could have enormous beneficial effects in decreasing morbidity in healthy populations.”
The lead investigators were Susan S. Percival, Ph.D., Professor of Nutritional Sciences in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at University of Florida, and Jack F. Bukowski, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer for the Nutritional Science Research Institute and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, conducted at the University of Florida, followed 120 healthy people for three months. When compared to a placebo, the results showed that Immune Guard, a patent-pending blend of decaffeinated compounds from green tea (Camellia sinensis):
- Decreased the number of people having cold and flu symptoms by 32 percent.
- Decreased the number of symptom days by36 percent.
- Decreased the need for medical treatment due tocold and flu symptoms by 58 percent.
- Enhanced innate immune function by28 percent.
“Tea has been linked to good health for centuries. Not surprisingly however, it is complicated to study the benefits of green tea because the hundreds of varieties, and the numerous ways to process, store and brew a cup of tea.There is also no general agreement on what quantity constitutes a single cup of tea,” said Dr. Percival.
“With this study, we were able to show that ingestion of a specific combination of decaffeinated tea polyphenols standardized to 45 percent EGCG and L-theanine, would enhance systemic immunity, and prevent cold and flu symptoms in healthy individuals. This is a significant finding,” continues Dr. Percival.
She added that, “Only about 20 percent of Americansdrink any tea. Those who do only average one to two cups a day. Unfortunately, most health benefits from tea are associated with higher amounts of daily consumption. You would have to drink 10 cups of green tea daily to get a result similar to that which was found in this study, and that’s a lot of tea and a lot of caffeine.”
Dr. Bukowski, who is also an Associate Physician in the Department of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said, “Mostgreen tea extracts are caffeinated, and no currently available tea extract has nearly enough L-theanine, polyphenols, and EGCG, which are necessary in correct combination and dose to realize their beneficial effect, while the nutritional supplement Immune Guard does.”
The proceeding information is the second American Wellness Network Research Report and the eighth articleon the researched benefits of Suntheanine L-theanine to appear in totalhealth magazine over the past five years. The first research report, which appeared in February2004, Volume 27 No. 2, in the article titled “Chemotherapy Protective Properties of Suntheanine L-theanine” statedthe following:
Suntheanine helps prevent the jitters caused by caffeine, promotes a positive mood and alertness, promoteslearning and memory, reduces stress and nervous tension, reduces PMS symptoms, and helps support immunefunction.
A laboratory study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrated that Suntheanine helps prepare the immune system to fight against foreign substances such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. Another human study out of Harvard University showed that blood cells of tea drinkers (tea contains L-theanine) reacted five times faster to germs than did those of coffee drinkers.
Research findings with Suntheanine, a pure source ofL-theanine, an abundant amino acid in tea, indicate a protective effect against the cellular side effects that accompany chemotherapy and prevention of nerve cell degeneration.
Animal and human studies have linked some of the side effects associated with cancer chemotherapy to decline in glutathione (GSH), with glutathione administration imparting significant clinical benefit. Suntheanine may act as a GSH modulator by supplying glutamate to cells, thereby increasing the cellular synthesis of GSH. This may explain the observed protection against chemotherapeutic toxicity while enhancing chemotherapeutic efficacy.
The manipulation of glutamate concentrations in the nervous system may influence the dynamics of nerve cell degeneration. Glutamate is used as a neurotransmitter in many nerve cells, but its excess accumulation is linked to nerve cell death, as seen in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. A recent study appearing in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (320:116–122, 2004) exposed cultured nerve cells to excess glutamate and found the resultant nerve cell death to be prevented by concurrent exposure to Suntheanine. “Indirect or direct blockade of glutamate neurotoxicity is a very active pursuit in the pharmaceutical industry,” offered Dr. Kazuki Nagasawa of Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, a co-investigator in the study. “Our findings of Suntheanine reversing nerve cell death possibly medicated by preventing glutamate-triggered oxidative stress are very encouraging.”
These studies add to the diverse evidence base supporting the broad spectrum of health applications for Suntheanine. Its primary application has been for promoting relaxation, based upon the findings of several clinical trials. “The breath of biological activities displayed by Suntheanine continue to intrigue and excite us,” said Scott Smith, vice president of Taiyo International. “We continue to actively support and foster both preclinical and clinical research, in a variety of areas.”
For further information on Suntheanine L-theanine, search AmericanWellnessNetwork.com.
The material in this article is presented solely to inform our readers of cutting-edge, natural approaches to health management and is not meant to suggest or encourage self-diagnosis or treatment of any disease. If you feel the ingredients reviewed could be of value in managing your health or in the treatment of a disease, we encourage youto share this article with your health care professional.
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