A PROMISE is often far better than a lack thereof. Or is it?
A glucose-based homogenous polysaccharide had been isolated experimentally to test green tea’s anti-prostate cancer ability.
Nine researchers, led by K. Yang, from the Hunan Provincial People’s Hospital (a public hospital in Changsha), used a human prostate cancer cell line and three doses (36, 60, and 100 micrograms per milliliter) of the polysaccharide isolate to perform their laboratory experiment to find out.
A human prostate cancer cell line is a preserved sample of prostate cancer cells from human patients, which scientists use to perform preliminary testing of a drug’s efficacy against cancer cells. It is an initial phase of a full-blown clinical trial to test, in our case, green tea’s efficacy. It is not known, however, if this study is a component of a clinical trial or merely an independent study to test the efficacy of green tea in vitro (i.e. in test tube).
Their experiment demonstrated that a minimum dose of 25 micrograms per milliliter of the green tea polysaccharide isolate can destroy cancer cells by bursting them through the process called “apoptosis.”
However, this finding is far from being readily useful to us.
First, the polysaccharide isolates tend to be broken down by our oral enzymes before reaching the stomach and by our gastric juices before reaching the bloodstream. Thus, it is highly doubtful that drinking green tea is the way to do it. Perhaps, the only means to avoid this breakdown is to administer it through injection, either intramuscularly or intravenously.
Second, the polysaccharide is evidently aggressive against cells. Thus, injecting it at its pure form may cause destruction of our blood cells, which can result in severe anemia and, therefore, be life-threatening.
Obviously, more studies need to be done in the future.
Perhaps, at present, for men with prostate problems, it is a situation of drink and pray.
Maybe prayers will do something more than the drink can.