Now it is already known to almost everyone that green tea comes with numerous benefits. One such excellent benefit of this tea is lowering cholesterol. Does it really help in reducing cholesterol? If yes, how? Here, we will discuss how the components of green tea can actually help to lower the cholesterol levels.

According to the researchers at Sun Yat-sen University, China, green tea includes a mechanism that actually helps to reduce cholesterol. They have also identified certain chemicals that are actually responsible for this process.

What the Researchers Say

Green tea includes an essential component called catechin that provides several health benefits. The researchers at the Sun Yat-sen University wanted to go a step further and focused on two chemicals in the family of the catechins, which possibly have a strong effect on the synthesis of cholesterol.

In the process of cholesterol synthesis, the human body uses three separate enzymes that are present in tea polyphenols. The researchers tested four different polyphenols of tea and found that EGCG (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate and ECG (-)-epicatechin-3-gallate simultaneously inhibited all the cholesterol related enzyme activities.

The researchers further analyzed how the tea compounds and the enzymes interacted using a computer model. It was noticed that binding pockets shaped like a triangle are present in all three cholesterol enzymes. Both EGCG and ECG can form strong chemical bonds with these three enzymes because of their shapes. Thus, tea chemicals bind to the precursors of cholesterol, which may lead to its control in the human body.

Is This Research Effective

Many experts believe that this research can be very useful and contribute to the pharmacological activities in a big way. As the study shows green tea’s binding components to vital enzymes, the scientists may be able to generate effective drugs to reduce cholesterol without any danger of side effects.

Green Tea-Traditional Chinese Medicine

Green tea has always been a very important component of traditional medicine in China for several hundreds of years. The recent scientific studies are further cementing the status of green tea as an alternative remedy for several health issues including reduction of cholesterol level in the body.

In 2011, a report was published in an American Journal about an analysis conducted on more than thousand people. This analysis was conducted with fourteen different controlled and randomized trials where it was found that people who consumed green tea have lowered their cholesterol levels in comparison to those who have not consumed green tea of extract of green tea. Moreover, people who consumed tea have maintained the levels of good cholesterol unchanged.

Thus, from the above discussion, it can be said that it can be effective for the reduction of cholesterol in the body. However, it is obviously recommended that you buy the best quality green tea to get the best results.