Findings from a new study confirm that tea extracts applied to the skin promote the repair of damage from radiotherapy and shed light on the mechanisms involved in the injury.

The beneficial effects of the extracts are mostly from their ability to attenuate the body signals that trigger inflammation. Radiotherapy interruption because of toxic effects to the skin may compromise the outcome of cancer treatment.

Scientifically, tea extracts have been used as a fold remedy for sunburns, which led to their use as a treatment for radiation-induced skin toxity. Tea extracts have proven quite successful in this regard but there were no scientific analysis to clarify their effects.

In a study reported by a well-known BMC Medicine journal; a group of researchers analyzed the effects of green tea and black tea extracts given to 60 patients with skin damage related to radiotherapy for head and neck cancers, and cancer in the pelvic region. The result - treatment with those extracts proven to enhance skin repair!

These are the conclusion obtained from the above-said researches:

- The green and black tea extracts were comparable in promoting repair for radiation damage in the head and neck region.
- Green tea extract was superior in the pelvic region.

The tea extracts inhibit a key proteasome, which “is at the centre of the inflammatory machinery”. This effect is associated with a reduction in several cells that lead to inflammation.

The researchers also found that the anti-inflammatory effects of the tea extract did not stem solely from epigallocatechin-gallate, considered the most active component found in green tea.

As this article progressing, these researchers are conducting series of study to compare tea extracts therapy with standard treatments for radiation-induced skin toxity. Perhaps they will bring good fortune to all of us soon.