From The December 2001 Issue of Nutrition Science News

Green Tea Protects Skin

Green tea may help protect skin from sun damage, according to a review conducted by Hasan Mukhtar, Ph.D., of the Department of Dermatology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Excessive ultraviolet exposure damages DNA in skin cells by forming the skin cancer initiator cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and creating free radicals, which cause cumulative oxidative damage. The time between oxidant formation and visible damage in the form of premature aging or skin cancer usually takes decades.

Mukhtar suggests that green tea polyphenols (GTP) are powerful antioxidants that provide photochemo protection such that exposure to UV radiation does not cause skin damage. His studies show that green tea is protective at all stages of cancer formation—initiation, promotion, and progression.

Mukhtar discovered in animal studies that feeding GTP (0.1 percent by weight) to hairless mice exposed to solar radiation resulted in less tumor growth, reduced oxidant formation, and normal skin. Topical application of GTP also prevents carcinogenic tumors and nonmalignant lesions (papillomas) from progressing to squamous-cell carcinoma.

Researchers who have conducted human studies found that treating skin with GTP before UV exposure prevents sunburn, infiltration of macrocytes (a major source of oxidants), and CPD formation.

In another controlled study of 400 patients with squamous-cell skin cancer, researchers learned that people who drank hot tea cut their skin cancer risk by two-thirds. Drinking weaker iced tea did not lower risk. Mukhtar concluded that the "use of skin care products supplemented with agents such as green tea may be an effective strategy for reducing UV-induced photodamage skin cancer in humans."

—Skin Pharmacol Appl Skin Physiol
2001;14:69-76.