Researchers from Meharry Medical College in Nashville have found that extracts from green tea may be useful in treating uterine fibroids, according to this Web MD report. According to some estimates, uterine fibroids is a condition that as many as 30% of the American female population may have.
While uterine fibroids, also known as uterine leiomyoma may often be quite asymptomatic, particularly in the earlier stages. However, the symptoms most commonly seen are excessive menstrual bleeding, vaginal bleeding, fatigue and anemia.
A constituent of green tea, namely epigallocatechin gallate is seen to act against uterine fibroids. The reaserchers found that this constituent also called EGCG was seen to kill uterine fibroid cells in rats.
It was noticed that the fibroids, after treatment with EGCG, became smaller and weighed less and it was therefore suggested that EGCG might be particularly useful for long-term use in women with a low fibroid tumor burden to arrest tumor progression and avoid the development of severe symptoms that necessitate major surgery.
