Green Tea & Antibiotics
For years now I’ve been telling all my patients when they go on antibiotics to drink green tea with the medication because green tea makes them more effective. In school I was told by naturopaths (Western medicine) as well as my acupuncture teachers (Eastern medicine) this interesting fact. Now there’s research that shows it.
Why you shouldn’t rely solely on antibiotics:
- Resistance – The big reason is largely due to how much we have been relying on them. The very bacteria or parasites they are designed to rid our bodies of are evolving and becoming more resistant. For them it’s basic survival. We have been so quick to reach for the antibiotics at the first sign of infection for so long many are far less or no longer effective. R&D cannot keep pace and create new drugs fast enough. Depending on the strain of bacteria and the antibiotics you have been prescribed, it may not be enough.
- Short term effect – While antibiotics are designed to attack bad bacteria, they can wipe out the good gut flora bacteria we need. They can potentially turn that good bacteria ‘bad’.
- Long term – We don’t completely know what the effect of taking too many over the course of our lives will be, for us individually and as a society.
Why Green Tea?
Why? A substance called EGCG, which can be extracted from both green and white tea. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG for short is the most significant phytochemical in green tea. It has been found to aid brain health, improve heart health, promote weight loss and be a powerful antioxidant free radicals which damage healthy cells leading to cancer.
Now we are finding EGCG in “even appears to make antibiotics more effective against previously drug resistant “superbugs.””.
If you have recently been prescribed antibiotics, head to your favorite store and get yourself some green tea.
If you have more questions about alternative remedies to use in place of or in conjunction with traditional medicine, I’d love to chat.
Leanne Pusateri
Sweet Relief Acupuncture
Acupuncturist Puyallup
253-468-0596
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