It is the drink of choice for the health-conscious, but doctors have warned of the hidden dangers of green tea after a teenage girl who drank three cups a day for three months contracted acute hepatitis.
The 16-year-old, who is originally from Yemen, went to the hospital experiencing nausea, dizziness, joint and stomach pain, the Daily Mail reports. It was at first believed to be a urinary tract infection, and she was sent home.
Two days later her symptoms had worsened and she went to the A&E department of Birmingham University Hospital. She developed a case of jaundice — a condition that turned her skin and the whites of her eyes yellow.
Doctors determined that she was suffering from hepatitis. Though hepatitis is typically caused by substances like alcohol or drugs, the teen denied drinking and said she hadn’t taken any over-the-counter or illegal drugs.
Upon further questioning, the teen revealed that she’d ordered Chinese green tea on the Internet after being told it could help her lose weight. She bought two boxes of 100 tea bags, and had been drinking three cups a day for several months.
Doctors ordered her to stop drinking the tea, and the swelling in her liver from hepatitis soon went down. After a short stay in the hospital, she was discharged.
The young girl told BMJ Journal: "Ah, green tea – it turns out that the elixir of many people’s lives can be dangerous to your health."
"I had bought the green tea over the internet to lose weight. I bought 2 boxes of 100 bags of tea and was drinking about 3 cups a day for a few months," she added."I had only lost a couple of pounds but then started having horrible pains in my joints, and felt very dizzy and sick."
The authors of the report said infections developing as a result of excessive herbal tea drinking were a “rare but recurring theme”.
They said it was possible that the addition of chemicals to the tea, perhaps to aid weight loss, or the use of pesticides on tea trees had contaminated the infusion.
“There is potential for pesticide-induced hepatitis to exist, especially from less regulated products ordered from developing countries over the internet,” said the report.
But the authors added: “We acknowledge that green tea is predominantly a very safe and healthy drink, with antioxidant properties.”
