Green Tea Builds Strong Bones

Green Tea Builds Strong Bones from Sportsgeezer

Got milk? Good. Now get some green tea, if you really want to build strong bones. That, at least, is the implication of research conducted in Hong Kong, where scientists found evidence that green tea contains a group of chemicals that can stimulate bone formation and help slow its breakdown.Science Daily reports that researchers exposed cultured bone-forming cells (osteoblasts) to three major green tea components — epigallocatechin (EGC), gallocatechin (GC), and gallocatechin gallate (GCG) — for several days. They found that one in particular, EGC, boosted the activity of a key enzyme that promotes bone growth by up to 79 percent. EGC also significantly boosted levels of bone mineralization in the cells, which strengthens bones. The journal reports that scientists also showed that high concentrations of ECG blocked the activity of a type of cell (osteoclast) that breaks down or weakens bones.

read more in Science Daily

sounds lovely except i've been drinking green tea daily for over 15 years and ... my bones are thinning. :(

From what I have read, we naturally lose some bone density as we become older. Maybe your bones would have thinned more if you hadn't been drinking green tea all these years! :)

I've been drinking green tea ever since I read Gwyneth Paltrow drinks four-five cups per day to keep her skin beautiful. I have to say, not to brag, but I do get a lot of compliments on my skin. And I've never had a broken bone, in spite of some pretty big crashes. I'm not the most graceful thing on two wheels.

I love green tea with stevia. I heat water and steep four tea bags every morning, and split them between two of my water bottles, and drink them at work. It's great.

Roxy

We know that cycling actually causes bone loss, so I guess we have to do everything we can to try to stop it. I drink green tea and soy milk, eat yogurt every day and take calcium supplements twice a day. Still, I have some bone loss in my hips.

I don't know that cycling causes bone loss, it's just that the more you ride, the less time you're probably devoting to impact activities.

I was just in the LBS the other day to buy some cables; while the parts guy got them, I talked with the (female) cashier a little bit about triathlon etc. The parts guy caught the tail end of the conversation and explained how he doesn't run any more and that "running is for people who don't have bikes." I replied, "Running is for people who don't want osteoporosis." You should've seen the look the cashier gave me. :p

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

I was just in the LBS the other day to buy some cables; while the parts guy got them, I talked with the (female) cashier a little bit about triathlon etc. The parts guy caught the tail end of the conversation and explained how he doesn't run any more and that "running is for people who don't have bikes." I replied, "Running is for people who don't want osteoporosis." You should've seen the look the cashier gave me. :p

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:D That's funny!

Now that it's getting cooler, I'm starting to get the urge to start running again. I haven't actually been running yet as the cycling is still so good. But I've been thinking about it. ;)