Tuesday, March 24, 2015

DANDELION LEAVES TEA::: POTENT LIVER CLEANSER


Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday! This is not a food tip, but it's definitely a health tip: Dandelion leave tea is a potent liver cleanser.
I buy mine at Loblaws. I cut them up and put them in my coffee pot, and pour in the water as I usually would. The hot water drips in and I let it steep for roughly 15 minutes and enjoy. Oh, I also add slices of lime.
Here are some helpful hints on how beneficial Dandelion leaves tea are:::
Although you probably think of dandelion (Tarazacum officinale) as a weed, the plant is also medicinal and has been used as a traditional herbal remedy for centuries. Native Americans boiled the plant and used it to treat skin problems, while Chinese herbalists recommend dandelion for stomach problems and to promote milk flow during breast-feeding. Modern science suggests that dandelion leaves and tea brewed from the leaves may have significant health benefits.
Antioxidant Actions
Dandelion leaves also contain several antioxidant compounds, such as luteolin, caffeic acid and chlorogenic acid, that help your body rid itself of potentially harmful free radicals. Free radicals form as byproducts of digestion, in your skin when you're in sunlight or if you're exposed to toxins. Over time, they can damage cellular membranes and DNA, raising the risk of cancer and other disorders. A study published in 2012 in the "Journal of Medicinal Food" found that animals fed dandelion leaf extract along with acetaminophen in high doses were protected from liver damage, compared to a placebo group. The researchers attributed this effect to the antioxidant properties of dandelion. More research into this potential benefit of dandelion compounds is still needed, but these findings are promising.
Anti-Cancer Properties
Research summarized on the Cancer Center website suggests that compounds in dandelion leaves have significant anti-cancer properties, at least in a laboratory setting. For example, a study published in the November 2002 issue of the ''Biological and Pharmacological Bulletin" found that a compound called taraxinic acid in dandelion stopped the growth of cultured leukemia cells and caused them to mature into a non-cancerous cell type. Another study in the January 2004 issue of "Life Sciences" found that dandelion extract caused cultured liver cancer cells to produce compounds that decreased their own survival. These findings are promising but still need further exploration in clinical trials with human subjects.

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