FROM: Sturgess, Frances Coulter
TO:[log in to unmask]
SUBJECT: Kombucha Tea
DATE: 10-14-97   15:43 EST
PRIORITY: 

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just FYI--since so many of us are interested in teas, herbals, etc

>From: [log in to unmask] (Linda J. Harris)
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Kombucha Tea
>X-Sender: [log in to unmask]
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
>
>Hello,
>I have had questions in the past about Kombucha tea.  The following
article
>may be of interest.
>Linda
>
>POPULAR 'CURE-ALL' TEA CAN CAUSE TOXIC REACTIONS
>October 8, 1997
>(from the Center for the Advancement of Health)
>Kombucha tea, a popular alternative health beverage that has been
touted
>as a cure for everything from wrinkles to cancer, has landed at least
four
>people in the hospital with dangerous side effects.
>Radhika Srinivasan, MD, of Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and her
>co-authors have documented four patients who developed symptoms ranging
>from nausea to jaundice after drinking home-made Kombucha tea. Their
>findings are reported in the October 1997 Journal of General Internal
>Medicine.
>The beverage (also known as Manchurian or Kargasok tea) is made by
>steeping Kombucha "mushrooms" (actually an aggregate of yeast and
bacteria
>covered by a permeable membrane, available in health food stores) in
tea
>and sugar to create a tonic. Claimed therapeutic powers include: curing
>cancer, lowering blood pressure, increasing vitality, increasing T-cell
>counts, relieving arthritis pain, cleansing the gall bladder,
alleviating
>constipation, fighting acne, eliminating wrinkles, and restoring gray
hair
>to its original color.
>Srinivasan and her co-authors, however, identified these four patients
in
>whom the effects were far from healthy:
>7 A 55-year-old woman with a history of heavy alcohol consumption
>developed jaundice two months after she started drinking two glasses of
>Kombucha tea a day. She stopped taking the tea and the symptoms
>disappeared after six weeks.
>7 Another woman complained of dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headaches
and
>neck pain after consuming a half-glass of tea a day for several months.
>She was hospitalized two days and her symptoms were resolved. After
being
>discharged from the hospital, she began drinking the tea again. Her
>symptoms returned and she had to be rehospitalized.
>7 A third patient came to the hospital complaining of shaking,
shortness
>of breath and extreme restlessness after consuming the tea. The patient
>was treated for a presumed allergic reaction and discharged the same
day.
>A fourth developed shortness of breath and throat tightness an hour
after
>drinking the tea. This patient was also treated for a presumed allergic
>reaction and discharged.
>The researchers caution that "these four cases highlight the use of a
>specific alternative therapy with [the] potential for toxicity."
Neither
>the tea?s claimed therapeutic benefits nor its adverse side effects
have
>been reported widely in scientific literature.
>Srinivasan and co-authors warn that this "health" beverage could in
fact
>be harmful to some consumers, even though no direct link could be made
>between drinking the tea and the adverse reactions reported, because of
>the small number of cases and the unethical aspects of testing the tea
for
>toxicity in humans. The authors also urge that patients who experience
>unexplainable symptoms and the physicians who treat them consider that
>those symptoms could be side effects from alternative therapies, such
as
>drinking home-brewed Kombucha tea.
>
>
>
>________________________________________
>Linda J. Harris, Ph.D.
>Food Safety/Microbiology Specialist
>Room 129 Food Science & Technology,
>University of California, Davis
>Davis, CA 95616
>
>Phone: (916)754-9485
>Fax: (916)752-4759 ATTN: L. J. Harris
>email:  [log in to unmask]
>NOTE:  Area code will change to 530 as of Nov. 1/97
>________________________________________
>
>
>