Can We Drink Green Tea After Taking Medicine?
Green tea is renowned for its numerous health benefits, particularly inweight lossand thyroid health. However, it is essential to understand how green tea interacts with daily medications one might be taking. In this article, we explore the relationship between green tea and thyroid disease, specifically hypothyroidism, and how it can be used for weight management alongside medication.
Using Green Tea for Weight Loss if You Have Thyroid Disease
If you suffer from hypothyroidism, losing weight can be a challenging task despite proper medication. Thyroid diseases can lead to a slower metabolism, resulting in weight gain. Green tea, a popular natural weight-loss aid, might offer some benefits, but it's crucial to take precautions.
How Green Tea Helps with Weight Loss
A healthy thyroid is essential for your metabolism to function correctly. When the thyroid does not produce enough hormones, your metabolism slows down, and your body burns fewer calories, often leading to weight gain. Green tea is believed to increase metabolic rate, enabling the body to burn more calories.
The 2008 Study Findings
A 2008 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that green tea extract significantly increased energy expenditure and fat burning. While the initial hypothesis was that the caffeine content in green tea was responsible, researchers discovered that the tea itself has properties beyond caffeine that contribute to metabolic benefits. Additional research attributes the metabolism-boosting effects to the combination of caffeine and catechin, a type of flavonoid found in green tea.
Caution and Perspective
Even with these positive findings, it is important to approach green tea consumption with a cautious eye. The degree of weight loss in studies involving green tea was relatively small. Moreover, adding sugar to your green tea can negate any calorie-burning benefits. Thus, while green tea can help, it should be part of a broader weight-loss strategy.
Green Tea and Thyroid Cancer
Green tea is celebrated for its potential anti-cancer properties. Some studies suggest that regular consumption can help reduce the risk of thyroid cancer. A 2015 meta-analysis in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine reviewed 14 studies involving more than 100,000 subjects and found a strong link between higher tea consumption and reduced thyroid cancer risk.
Different Interpretations
However, the reduction in cancer risk might be attributed not just to the tea itself but to the overall healthier lifestyle that tea drinkers tend to have. Thus, more research is needed to determine whether green tea or the lifestyle changes associated with it are responsible for the observed effects.
Side Effects and Precautions
Green tea is generally considered safe for thyroid patients and is different from other prescription drugs for obesity or herbal products like ephedra, which can raise heart rates and blood pressure. However, some studies suggest that consuming large doses of green tea in extract form may affect thyroid hormone levels, leading to lower T3 and T4 but higher TSH levels. This research was conducted on rodents and thus may not be directly applicable to humans.
Tea How-Tos
There are no official guidelines on incorporating green tea into a diet. It is available in various forms such as tea bags, loose tea, supplements, extracts, and iced tea products. Green tea contains approximately 30 mg to 40 mg of caffeine per cup, which is known to inhibit the absorption of levothyroxine, a common thyroid hormone replacement drug. Therefore, it's advisable to wait 30 minutes after taking this medication before consuming green tea.
A Word From Verywell
While green tea may offer some metabolic benefits, it should only be used in conjunction with standard weight-loss programs and will not help you lose significant amounts of weight on its own. Moreover, green tea extracts and supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and may provide toxic levels of catechins. It is best to avoid these forms of green tea altogether.