Green Tea Extract and Curcumin

Experimental Design: The in vitro effect of curcumin on primary CLL B cell was evaluated using a fluorescence activated cell sorter analysis and Western blotting. For some experiments, CLL B cells were co-cultured with human stromal cells to evaluate the effects of curcumin on leukemia cells cultured in their micro-environment. Finally, the effect of curcumin in combination with the green tea extract (EGCG) was evaluated.

Results: Curcumin induced apoptosis in CLL dose dependent manner and inhibited constitutively active pro-survival pathways, including signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3), AKT, and nuclear factor κB.  Researchers found that when the curcumin was administered simultaneously with EGCG, there was an antagonistic effect observed for most patient samples, however when the compounds were administered sequentially– first with the green tea extract followed later by the curcumin, it led to substantial increases in CLL B-cell death and could overcome stromal protection.  Link to this study.

Further notes on this study

The antagonistic effect mentioned above found that a combination of the two natural substances together didn’t work as well as the researches had hoped.  They phrased it this way.  “… simultaneous culture had a less than additive effect.”    Furthermore “sequential (or one at a time) administration led to dramatically more leukemic cell death than simultaneous administration.”  So, not only did exposing the cancer cells to these substances one at a time matter, but the order at which they were exposed mattered as well. When the green tea was added first, followed by curcumin, it worked much better than if the cells were exposed to the curcumin first, followed by the green tea extract.  It should also be noted that the study used curcumin that was not bio-available. If they had done so this probably would have enhanced the effectiveness of the overall treatment as noted in the final paragraphs of this study.  There are many bio-available forms of curcumin available on the market today.  Read more about them.

Two studies on green tea extract for prostate cancer–  Asian cultures have promoted the many health benefits of green tea for thousands of years. In the last decade, hundreds of studies now  confirm that you should be drinking a few cups of green tea  every day. And two recent studies show that it provides  particularly powerful prostate protection.

• Study 1- A case-control study was conducted in Hangzhou, southeast China during 2001-2002. The cases were 130 incident patients with histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the prostate. The controls were 274 hospital inpatients without prostate cancer or any other malignant diseases, and matched to the age of cases. Information on duration, quantity and frequency of usual tea consumption, as well as the number of new batches brewed per day, were collected by face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire. The risk of prostate cancer for tea consumption was assessed using multivariate logistic regression adjusting for age, locality, education, income, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, total fat intake, marital status, age at marriage, number of children, history of vasectomy and family history of prostate cancer. Among the cases, 55.4% were tea drinkers compared to 79.9% for the controls. Almost all the tea consumed was green tea. The prostate cancer risk declined with increasing frequency, duration and quantity of green tea consumption. The adjusted odds ratio (OR), relative to non-tea drinkers, were 0.28 (95% CI = 0.17-0.47) for tea drinking, 0.12 (95% CI = 0.06-0.26) for drinking tea over 40 years, 0.09 (95% CI = 0.04-0.21) for those consuming more than 1.5 kg of tea leaves yearly, and 0.27 (95% CI = 0.15-0.48) for those drinking more than 3 cups (1 litre) daily. The dose response relationships were also significant, suggesting that green tea is protective against prostate cancer.
• Study 2- Italian researchers studied 62 men who had been diagnosed with a pre-cancerous prostate condition, which would normally result in cancer in about 30 percent of the cases. Half of the men were given a placebo and the other half consumed green tea extract every day. In the placebo group, 9 out of 30 men went on to develop cancer, but in the green tea group, only 1 out of 32 participants developed the disease. This number is consistent with a study of Chinese men which found that those who consumed the most green tea were two-thirds less likely to develop prostate cancer.

Studies regarding curcumin and cancer

• In 2001, scientists discovered that turmeric dampens the inflammation cascade that can occur within the body, thereby stopping the proliferation of cancer in its tracks.
• In 2002, scientists began unraveling how turmeric selectively worked against cancer cells. They found that cancer cells produce “transcription factors” which protect them against cell death. Turmeric’s active ingredients include a host of compounds known as curcuminoids. Collectively, they attack the cancer’s transcription factor, and restore the cells’ natural ability to commit suicide (apoptosis) .  Unlike conventional treatments, turmeric strengthens healthy cells, while removing cancerous ones with laser-like precision.
• Early in the 1990s, the University of Texas’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, reported that the anticancer effects of turmeric were found to be “staggering.”  After sprinkling a pinch of the spice on cancer cells in the lab, researchers found that it blocked a crucial pathway required for the development of skin cancer, prostate tumors, as well as other cancers.
• Further studies at the University of Wisconsin reported that turmeric blocks a type of cancer fertilizer known as VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor). Without this growth factor, cancer cells are unable to thrive and eventually commit cell suicide.
• Epidemiology studies reveal that populations who consume the most turmeric also have the lowest rates of prostate cancers.  India has twenty-five times less incidence prostate cancers than men in the United States.  The average intake of turmeric in the Indian population is 2-2.5 g/day, providing about 60-200 mg of curcumin.
• Read more about curcumin

In regards to supplementation with green tea and curcumin

Green Tea- you can find concentrated Green Tea Supplements or take it as Matcha Green Tea Powder which can be made into a beverage or you can add the powder into your smoothies. While the supplements are more powerful, just one teaspoon of Matcha Powder is equivalent to drinking ten cups of regular green tea.  Most green tea only has .42mg of EGCG per gram, but Matcha Tea has 57.4mg per gram, which is about 137 times the cancer stem cell fighting ability in a form that your body can easily absorb.

Curcumin– the standard dose for curcumin is 400 to 600 milligrams daily, but when dealing with cancer or other chronic illness, this doses can go as high as 4, 6,or 8 grams daily.  As reported in the article linked below, “phase I clinical trials, using massive doses of curcumin (up to 8 g/day for four months) in human volunteers, “did not result in discernible toxicities.”

Unfortunately many supplemental formulations of curcumin are unable to cross from the digestive tract into the bloodstream, so when purchasing look for BCM-95 Curcumin, which allows for the highest available absorption rates (up to 96%) into the bloodstream.

Additional resources

• Link to more information on supplementing with Curcumin
• Read more about green tea extract
• Read Glenn Sabin’s testimonial of healing chronic lymphocytic leukemia with diet, supplements and green tea extract