Boost Your Immunity with Tea
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May/June 2004
By Evelyn Leigh
While the study was small, it has important implications for future research on the health benefits of tea. The researchers concluded, “These data provide evidence that dietary intake of tea and perhaps other vegetables and fruits containing alkylamine antigens or their precursors may prime human gamma delta T cells that then can provide natural resistance to microbial infections and perhaps tumors.”
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The study used black tea, but green and oolong teas also contain l-theanine. In fact, black, green and oolong teas all come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The main difference among these three types of tea lies in the way in which they are processed.
Reference
Kamath, A.B., et al. “Antigens in tea-beverage prime human gamma delta T cells in vitro and in vivo for memory and nonmemory antibacterial cytokine responses.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2003; 100(10): 6009 – 6014.
Evelyn Leigh is a writer, editor and herbalist who lives to garden in Boulder, Colorado. She is the co-author of the Herb Research Foundation’s science-based book, The Encyclopedia of Popular Herbs (Prima Publishing, 2000).
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