Green Tea and its Bioactive Epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG) Inhibited Fibromyalgia Caused by Inflammatory Rheumatic Disorders

By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Green tea may have a therapeutic and positive effect in reducing the onset, progression, and treatment of inflammatory-rheumatic-disorders-induced fibromyalgia, some scientists suggested.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic condition characterized by muscle and soft tissue pain, In other words, patients with the syndrome are experiencing widespread pain and increased sensitivity to pain.

The condition affects over 10 million (3.6% of the population) people in the US.

The inflammatory rheumatic disorder is a condition of autoimmune disorders caused by inflammatory connective tissues, joint, and vessels of the body, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and vasculitis.

The exact causes of fibromyalgia are unknown. However, researchers do know that certain risk factor, including genetic mutation inherited from the parents, age, emotional and physic abuse in the childhood, gender, and posttraumatic stress disorder are associated with the higher risk of the syndrome develops.

Some researchers also suggested that chronic arthritis, persistent stress, anxiety, and depression and physical inactivity are associated with the increased risk of the onset of the incidence.

Conventional medicine such as pregabalin (Lyrica), duloxetine (Cymbalta), and milnacipran (Savella) used in pain management in patients with FM may be effective, however, they can induce some common side effects including gastrointestinal discomforts, constipation, dry mouth.

In some patient, intake of the medicine may cause the side effect of insomnia, high blood pressure, and irregular heartbeats. 

Green tea is a precious drink processed numbers of health benefit known to almost everyone in Asia and the Western world.

According to the Cairo University, as many as 15-30% of patients with classic inflammatory rheumatic disorders also have a co-morbid fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) compared to the rate of only 2% of the prevalence of FMS in the general population (2%).

These results suggested that rheumatological syndromes have a strong implication in the development of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) compared to other initiators such as stress.

Therefore, patients with chronic rheumatic diseases are capable of triggering condition of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).

Due to the highly correlated rheumatologic disease and FMS component, researchers postulated “Considerations of the FMS component in the management of rheumatologic diseases increase the likelihood of the success of the treatment” and “(prevented) FMS in misdiagnosed as an autoimmune disorder”

In the study of the effect of green tea’s active ingredient, epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG) in risk of inflammatory rheumatic disorders in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice, researchers found that application of green tea demonstrates a substantially marked inhibition of the inflammatory mediators cyclooxygenase (COX) -2 in converting arachidonic acid to stimulate the production of proinflammatory cytokine prostaglandin H2, in the catalyzation of symptoms of inflammation in the muscles.

Furthermore, green tea EGCG oral ingestion also inhibited levels of interferon gamma in precipitated inflammation by modulating T-cells and natural killer cells activated by antigens, mitogens or alloantigens to the site of infection.

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) involved in systemic inflammation, one of the cytokines that make up the acute phase reaction in mice was also inhibited by injection of green tea EGCG.

These results suggested that green tea ameliorated symptoms expression of inflammatory rheumatic disorders, through attenuating production pro-inflammatory factors without reducing the healing progression of injured tissue.

The above differentiation was supported by the study of green tea extract GTE in ameliorating rat adjuvant-induced arthritis.

According to the researchers, a daily per-oral administration of GTE (200 mg/kg) reduced expression of RA through reducing the levels of MCP-1/CCL2 in expression (which can also be treated by biological agents, such as antibodies and inhibitory peptides) of a variety of diseases characterized by mononuclear cell infiltration involved substantial biological and genetic evidence, including RA. and GROα/CXCL1 in the recruitment of inflammatory cells in the wound healing process after injury in angiogenesis and in the formation of granulation tissue of wounds.

Additionally, application of green tea beside attenuated the expression of proinflammatory factors.

Green tea also exhibited the production of chemokine receptors CCR-1, CCR-2, CCR-5 by reducing the direct communication between the innate and adaptive immune responses that initiate the development of inflammatory responses. through inactivation of leukocytes in the inflamed tissues in the contribution to the pathogenesis of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and CXCR1 receptor in binding to IL-8 to reduce the expression some inflammatory cytokines, such as epidermal growth factor (EGF) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α).

Some researchers suggested that application of green tea extract may also reduce the symptoms of arthritis through expression of IL-6 levels, as increased levels of Il-6 was associated to the presence and progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) found in conventional clinical and laboratory indices and MMP-2 activity in activated immune inflammatory response through inducing production of pro-inflammatory factors.

Taken together, green tea and its bioactive compound such as EGCG may have a profound and therapeutic effect in reducing the onset, progression, and treatment of fibromyalgia-induced by inflammatory rheumatic disorders through modulating the production of pro and anti-inflammatory proteins.

However, intake of green tea supplement should be taken with extreme care due to recent reports of acute liver toxicity.

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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) Fibromyalgia and Rheumatic Diseases by Gheita TA*, El-Rabbat SM and Mahmoud NK(Open Access)
(2) Green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin 3-gallate in arthritis: progress and promise by Salahuddin Ahmed(PMC)