The benefits of drinking tea regularly
Tea is one of the most popular drinks in the world, especially in China. Tea in China is not only a drink, but also a symbol of life style and culture.
Drinking tea is considered a healthy lifestyle habit because tea contains a variety of beneficial compounds, such as catechins, tea polyphenols and caffeine. Many studies have shown that tea extract can inhibit cancer, prolong life, reduce the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and so on.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common type of chronic liver disease in China, with more than 150 million patients. Currently, there are no drugs approved to treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and patients can only intervene with diet changes and exercise. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new treatment strategies.
Recently, Researchers from China Medical University published a paper entitled "Epigallocatechin gallate alleviates non-alcoholic fatty liver disease" in the journal Clinical Nutrition through the inhibition of the expression and activity of Dipeptide kinase 4 ".
This study confirmed through clinical randomized controlled trials, animal experiments and in vitro experiments that EGCG, the main bioactive ingredient in green tea, helps to improve fatty liver, ECGC inhibits lipid accumulation, inhibits inflammation, regulates lipid metabolism, prevents liver damage, and improves non-alcoholic fatty liver by inhibiting the expression and activity of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4).
Dipeptide kinase 4 (DPP4), a protease that cleaves a range of substrates on the cell surface, has been accumulating evidence that DPP4 plays a role in the development of NAFLD, with NAFLD patients exhibiting higher plasma DPP4 activity compared to healthy individuals.
In this study, the researchers analyzed the potential efficacy of EGCG in patients with NAFLD through clinical randomized controlled trials, observed the improvement of EGCG on the liver of model mice through animal model experiments, and analyzed the mechanism of EGCG improvement in NAFLD through in vitro experiments.
In a randomized controlled clinical trial involving 15 participants with NAFLD, EGCG was consumed by tea polyphenol tablets, and liver data were measured at baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks.
The results found that patients had significantly lower liver fat content after 24 weeks of EGCG treatment compared to baseline, and two of the patients had fatty liver remission after the end of the 24 week treatment period. In addition, the patients' waist circumference and total cholesterol levels also decreased significantly after 24 weeks.
The analysis showed that after 24 weeks of EGCG treatment, AST levels were reduced and DPP4 levels were also reduced.
Renal function analysis showed that serum creatinine levels and glomerular filtration rate values remained within the normal range, indicating that EGCG has a good safety profile.