Green Tea: Nature’s Miracle Skin Product

We love green tea. It’s been called natures “other” caffeine.

But did you know that it can prevent aging, cancer, and even boost your metabolism?

There have been a number of encouraging studies of skin benefits of green tea. Animal studies showed protection from certain skin cancers. Green tea appears to exert sun damage protection by quenching free radicals and reducing inflammation rather than by blocking UV rays.

Therefore, green tea may synergistically enhance sun protection when used in addition to a sunscreen.

What about wrinkles, skin sag and other signs of aging?

Can green tea help?

Considering their well-documented antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, topical green tea polyphenols are likely to slow down the development of some signs of aging. Whether green tea can actually diminish wrinkles and skin sag is far more uncertain.

In a 2005 study, forty women with moderate photoaging were randomized to either a combination regimen of 10% green tea cream and 300 mg twice-daily green tea oral supplementation or a placebo regimen for 8 weeks. No significant differences in clinical grading were found between the green tea-treated and placebo groups.

Uncertainty regarding the extent of green tea benefits and its optimal usage is likely to remain for years to come, but we recommend to include green tea in your skin care.

In particular, since sun protection benefits of green tea are particularly well documented, it could make sense to apply a green tea formula under your sunscreen when venturing into the sun. It is best to combine green tea with zinc oxide-based sunscreens because zinc oxide is chemically inert and should not react with green tea (which some chemical sunscreens might do, especially in sunlight).

It may also be useful to incorporate green tea into your skin maintenance routine to possibly slow down skin aging.