Green Tea Protects the Child Joints Against the Onset of Juvenile Arthritis

By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Green tea may have a therapeutic and positive effect in reducing risk, progression, and treatment of juvenile arthritis, some scientists suggested.

Juvenile arthritis is an inflammatory disease affecting the synovium in children aged 16 or younger.

In other words, it is an autoimmune disorder caused by the immune system attacks some of the body’s own healthy cells and tissues, in this case, the immune system attacks the joint tissue in the juvenile.

Genes that are associated with the risk of juvenile idiopathic arthritis include HLA-A. HLA-B. HLA-DPB1. HLA-DQA1. HLA-DQB1. HLA-DRB1. IL2RA. IL6, according to the National Institute of Health.

According to the statistic, the most common form of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), affects over 50,000 children in the United States alone.

Juvenile Arthritis shares the common symptoms of adult arthritis, including pain, stiffness, swelling, fever, skin rash and in the serious case. The condition can also cause some complications such as pericarditis, hemolytic anemia, macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), and endarteritis

In the article “Juvenile Arthritis: Early Signs and Symptoms” By Susan Bernstein wrote, “Juvenile arthritis includes many different diseases, but one common thread between them is that they can have serious, even life-threatening impacts on a young child”.
Green tea, a precious drink processes numbers of health benefit known to almost everyone in Asia and Western world.

In the investigation of the effect of green tea extract on the oxidative state of the liver and brain of adjuvant-induced arthritic rats, a model for human rheumatoid arthritis with daily doses of 250 mg kg(-1) (59.8 mg catechins per kg) for 23 days, researchers at the State University of Maringá, found that treatment group expressed a significant activity in reducing the protein and lipid damage in liver, brain, and plasma, caused by ROS expression in induction of oxidation which has been found with associated to the progression of arthritis.

Injection of green tea extract also enhanced the overexpression of antioxidant defenses, found in low levels in patients with arthritis through restoration of the glutathione (GSH) associated to the important function in preventing damage to important cellular components caused by reactive oxygen species and protein thiol levels in reducing cellular oxidation through chelative and detoxified activities and improved natural antioxidant enzymes, produced by the body.

Furthermore, green tea extract also inhibited the levels of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, which is increased in the liver in patients with arthritis, one of the major risk factor for the development of arthritis.

These results suggested that application of green tea exerted a significantly profound effect in the liver and brain of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis through reduced overexpression of oxidative stress in precipitated injury to lipids and proteins.

Some researchers suggested that by modifying the metabolic function in lipid and protein, green tea extract exhibited a strong protective effect in reducing the symptoms and progression of arthritis.

According to the study of University of Health System of green tea effect in patients with rheumatoid
arthritis, injection of green tea extract demonstrated a therapeutic effect in patient’s synovial fibroblast of the lining tissue which surround the capsule of the joint by inhibiting the production of IL-1B, a prototypic proinflammatory cytokines in response to acute and chronic inflammation. Overexpression of IL-1B is associated with the contribution of joint damage.

Interestingly, in the study of adolescent male Wistar rats 12-week exposure to Cd and Pb (7mg Cd and 50mg Pb in 1kg of the diet randomly assigned to 12 to each group, as positive control received without Cd, Pb and teas, a negative control group received Cd and Pb, and groups supplemented additionally with green (GT), black (BT), red (RT), and white tea (WT), researchers indicated that application of tea significant inhibits the decreased levels of the geometric(shape) and densitometric(density) parameters and total thickness of articular cartilage caused by Cd and Pb in compared to the negative control group.

Tea injection group also displayed a huge improvement in mechanical endurance, growth plate thickness, and trabecular histomorphometry depending on the tea type.

Due to the limitation of the study, Dr. Tomaszewska E, the lead researcher said, ” It is difficult to indicate which tea has the best protective effects on bone and hyaline cartilage against heavy metal action”.

More importantly, in the examine some major factors in contributing juvenile arthritis, green tea rich in catechins (Healthy green tea) in animal study, green tea injection restored these biomarkers of cytokine genes (IL-1A, IL-2, IFN-alpha, FGF-alpha, TNF-alpha) to near normal levels, thus preventing or attenuating the development of a certain type of inflammatory arthritis.

Taken all together, green tea and its bioactive polyphenols may be considered a functional food for reduction of the early onset, progression and combined with standard therapy for treatment of juvenile and adult arthritis.

However, the intake of green tea supplement should be taken with exceptional care as acute liver toxicity has been reported in numbers of medical literature.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it’s news, the karate GB daily, etc.,
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada – Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Green tea extract improves the oxidative state of the liver and brain in rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis by de Almeida Gonçalves G1, de Sá-Nakanishi AB, Wendt MM, Comar JF, Bersani Amado CA, Bracht A, Peralta RM. (PubMed)
(2) (Alteration in bone geometric and mechanical properties, histomorphometrical parameters of trabecular bone, articular cartilage, and growth plate in adolescent rats after chronic co-exposure to cadmium and lead in the case of supplementation with green, black, red and white tea by Tomaszewska E1, Dobrowolski P2, Winiarska-Mieczan A3, Kwiecień M3, Tomczyk A4, Muszyński S5, Radzki R4.(PubMed)
(3) Green tea with a high catechin content suppresses inflammatory cytokine expression in the galactosamine-injured rat liver by Abe K1, Ijiri M, Suzuki T, Taguchi K, Koyama Y, Isemura M.(PubMed)