A 16-year-old English teenager who had been drinking green tea ordered online was feeling terrible, with pains all over her body, dizziness, and nausea. She consulted a doctor, who thought she had symptoms of a urinary tract infection and prescribed antibiotics for it.
The girl felt worse after taking just 2 doses of the prescribed medicine, so she went to the emergency department. The doctors at the local hospital noticed that the whites of her eyes and her skin had turned yellow, a clear sign of jaundice.
Her condition was serious and she needed urgent attention. Since her liver was inflamed and swollen, the acute medical care team diagnosed hepatitis.
As she was relatively young for such a diagnosis, the doctors wanted to find the cause, so they looked into the circumstances that had brought her there. What they found was unexpected.
The girl said that she hadn’t consumed any alcohol, hadn’t taken any other prescription or illegal drugs, had never had a blood transfusion, and hadn’t recently traveled abroad.
So none of the usual explanations could have been the reason for her hepatitis.
What the Doctors Found
The doctors continued investigating, and they discovered that she had ordered 2 packages of green tea from China, and that she had been drinking 3 cups of the tea daily for the past couple of months.
Her purpose was to control her appetite and to lose weight. But because the text on the tea boxes was written in Chinese, she wasn’t able to understand it, so she didn’t have the slightest idea about the exact content of the tea. The doctors looked at the product, and they advised the girl to stop drinking it right away.
The tea was made from Camellia sinensis, the evergreen shrub whose leaf buds and leaves are used in the manufacturing of green tea and many other teas. In rare cases, this plant has been connected to hepatitis and liver damage, mostly in people who took concentrated green tea extracts and supplements, so the doctors concluded that the tea was the most likely cause of the girl’s condition.
In the medical literature, there are reports of patients who suffered serious liver injury after using such products, some of whom needed liver transplants, and a few cases were even fatal. Moreover, the doctors noted that other ingredients may have been added to the tea to provide a stronger weight-loss effect.
The journal BMJ Case Reports shares the statements of the doctors who treated the girl. They say that hepatitis caused by pesticide residues is also possible, especially with products ordered over the Internet from places where they are not properly regulated. They recommend extra caution when using teas ordered online with unclear content and quality, or avoiding them completely.
Her Recovery and What It Means for Tea Drinkers
After she stopped drinking the tea, the girl recovered, and within 2 months her liver function was back to normal. Doctors use this example to point out that, in rare cases, green tea products – especially in excessive amounts or in concentrated form – may contribute to liver disease, and that some varieties of tea can contain unwanted substances such as pesticides.
For most people, green tea in moderate amounts is a safe drink. It is best to choose a well-known brand of green tea, drink it in moderate amounts, and talk to a doctor before using any tea or supplement sold for weight loss, especially for teenagers.
Via Sun-Gazing
This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always talk to your doctor about any health concern.