In the previous reports, the green tea’s benefits focused so far on preventing cancer. Today we are moving on to other amazing abilities of this marvelous herbal. Let’s take a look at the evidence around how green tea could enhance your heart’s health.

Drinking green tea may improve your cardiovascular health in many ways. Let’s break it down into four parts:

1. Green tea lowers cholesterol: In China a study was conducted involving 220 men and women with mild to moderate high cholesterol were selectedly administered with a daily capsule containing green tea extract or placebo for a total of 12 weeks. In those participants treated with the green tea extract, total and LDL or bad cholesterol were considerably lowered by 11.3% and 16%, respectively, as compared to the placebo-treated group that showed no change.

2. The herbal drink reduces risk of death from coronary heart disease: In a Japanese study there were 8,522 men and women participants and were monitored for 12 years. Those men who drank 10 cups of green tea per day experienced a 58% reduction in the risk of death from coronary heart disease in contrast to those who drank only three cups a day.

3. Green tea lowers blood pressure: Again in a Japanese study, there were 240 obese individuals involved and were given green tea containing 583 mg of catechins, the main ingredient in green tea or placebo. The group treated with green tea, there was a lowering of systolic blood pressure, as compared to the placebo group. What is more, the green-tea-treated group had a dropped in body fat as well as LDL cholesterol.

4. Finally, it prevents strokes: In a Japanese study that used 4,200 men and women who died of cardiovascular diseases or cancers, drinking green tea was inversely associated with death due to all causes, except cancer, and due to heart disease specifically. This protective result showed more in women than men. The strongest inverse association was noted in those with stroke. In contrast to women who drank less than one cup of green tea a day, those who drank six or more cups a day had a 42% lower risk of dying from stroke.

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The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and 22 other health groups on Tuesday urged Congress to approve the reproductive health (RH) bill.

In a press conference at the Philippine General Hospital, the 23 health care professional organizations, representing 100,000 doctors and nurses, and 167,000 midwives, expressed their support for the RH bill.

“We can no longer turn a blind eye [to the controversy] because we are part of the life-saving solution,” the PMA said in a statement.

“As health care providers we simply cannot be reduced to being for or against the bill because our obligation has and will always be about saving lives, and the longer we stay quiet, the more lives are lost,” it added.

Life-giving provisions

The group presented a manifesto calling for the protection of seven “life-giving” provisions in the RH bill.

These include the provision saying that the “state protect the individual’s freedom to decide what family planning method s/he wants to use (whether natural or artificial), that the bill should have explicit statements against induced abortion, and that the state should protect a couple’s right to decide on their ideal family size.

“The state should recognize and respect religious rights and convictions of both patients and caregivers [and] RH education should include value formation, and [should] be age-appropriate,” the manifesto said.

It said that the provision for reproductive health services should be improved while guidelines on the use of specific contraceptives, including warnings on safety, should be left to the discretion of the Food and Drug Administration.

“This will allow recommendations to evolve as scientific knowledge advances,” it added.

Besides the PMA, the other groups that signed the manifesto included former Health Secretaries Alberto Romualdez and Esperanza Cabral, former PMA president Santiago del Rosario, Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, Philippine Society of Newborn Medicine, Integrated Midwives Association of the Philippines, Kalusugan ng Mag-Ina Inc. and National Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Other signatories were the Department of Health, Philippine College of Physicians, Philippine Society of General Internal Medicine, Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, UP School of Health Sciences (Palo, Leyte), Philippine Ambulatory Pediatric Association, UP Manila College of Nursing, Ortoll Reproductive Primary Health Care Center, University of the Philippines Manila, Philippine Society of Hypertension, Child Protection Unit, Philippine General Hospital, National Institute of Health, Philippine Family Planning Consortium, Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital and Asia Pacific Center for Evidence-Based Medicine.