Green Tea Benefit for skin diseases and cancers

In traditional Chinese medicine green tea and its extracts are commonly used to prevent and treat a number of skin diseases, including skin cancer.  The high content of a different anti-oxidants, called polyphenols, seems to be responsible for this by removing free radicals from the skin before they have a chance to attack the DNA in you skins cells, which otherwise can lead to cancer.

Topical applications of green tea extracts also help protect against UV exposure from the sun, and are used to reduce the impact the sun has on the health of your skin. It contains a high concentration of polyphenols, chemicals with potent antioxidant properties. In modern Chinese medicine and culture, green tea and its extracts are extensively used in the prevention and treatment of various skin diseases, including skin cancer. The rich polyphenol content in it scavenges free radicals, cell damaging compounds in the body that alter DNA molecules in the chromosomes, inducing harmful mutations that lead to the initiation of skin cancer.

Topical applications of green tea extracts (EGCG) have protective effects on UVA- and UVB-induced skin damage (photoaging and carcinogenesis). A study done in 2003 at the Georgia Medical College seemed to back this up, by concluding that green tea helps rejuvenate skin cells and protect against ultraviolet damage to the cells.

These results and beliefs all suggest that it might have several significant benefits to your health.  But, like all things, it is not any sort of magic bullet that will by itself provide you with benefits, nor do these benefits appear immediately.  Many of the benefits found for green tea, only occur after drinking it for an extended time, months or years.  This is also backed up by Chinese traditional medicine, where it is recommended as an integral long term part of a healthy diet, not as some immediate fix that will instantly cure diseases.