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Green tea catechins as brain-permeable, natural iron chelators-antioxidants for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders
Silvia Mandel *, Tamar Amit, Lydia Reznichenko, Orly Weinreb, Moussa B. H. Youdim
Eve Topf and US NPF Centers for Neurodegenerative diseases and Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel. Fax: +972-4-851-3145
email: Silvia Mandel (mandel@tx.technion.ac.il)
*Correspondence to Silvia Mandel, Eve Topf and US NPF Centers for Neurodegenerative diseases and Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel. Fax: +972-4-851-3145

KEYWORDS
(-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate • Flavonoid • Hypoxia • Neurodegeneration • Parkinson's disease
ABSTRACT
Neurodegeneration in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, or other neurodegenerative diseases appears to be multifactorial, where a complex set of toxic reactions, including oxidative stress (OS), inflammation, reduced expression of trophic factors, and accumulation of protein aggregates, lead to the demise of neurons. One of the prominent pathological features is the abnormal accumulation of iron on top of the dying neurons and in the surrounding microglia. The capacity of free iron to enhance and promote the generation of toxic reactive oxygen radicals has been discussed numerous times. The observations that iron induces aggregation of inert -synuclein and beta-amyloid peptides to toxic aggregates have reinforced the critical role of iron in OS-induced pathogenesis of neurodegeneration, supporting the notion that a combination of iron chelation and antioxidant therapy may be one significant approach for neuroprotection. Tea flavonoids (catechins) have been reported to possess divalent metal chelating, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities, to penetrate the brain barrier and to protect neuronal death in a wide array of cellular and animal models of neurological diseases. This review aims to shed light on the multipharmacological neuroprotective activities of green tea catechins with special emphasis on their brain-permeable, nontoxic, transitional metal (iron and copper)-chelatable/radical scavenger properties.

Cheer,
How's Jeff's overall iron? Is there a way to get rid of the brain/spinal iron while laving the required iron in the blood?
I have done a lot of looking in to this but seem to get a lot of confusing info, but thats the internet!

Will just drinking it be enough, or do we need the extract because it's more concentrated?

Drug: epigallocatechin-gallate EGCG(Sunphenon)
200 mg twice daily, after 3 months 400 mg twice daily

If you want to get it in the most potent form from tea directly, matcha (japanese sencha powder) is probably the purest way to go, however matcha is expensive

A box of 100 1.5g tea bags is $12.69 which is a pretty good deal considering that Ito En wants $1/tea bag on their web site.

For anyone who might be a Costco member... They sell matcha green tea manufactured by Ito En. A box of 100 1.5g tea bags is $12.69 which is a pretty good deal considering that Ito En wants $1/tea bag on their web site.