Green Tea Extract Can Be Terrible for Your Liver
A Texas man needed a liver transplant after taking green tea extract , and his case is not the first of its kind. Green tea supplements (but not green tea itself) have also been linked to liver damage in the past.
To be clear, liver damage from supplements is rare and there are only a few known or highly suspected cases. Texas resident Jim McCants says his doctors concluded that green tea supplements were likely to blame after they first looked at alcohol (he barely drinks) and prescription drugs (he didn’t take them). It is possible that something else caused damage to his liver, but it is also possible that others were affected, but never knew why.
The National Institutes of Health ranks green tea extract as “a well-established cause of clinically evident liver damage” in its LiverTox database. They also point out that green tea extract is one of many Hydroxycut ingredients, supplements for weight loss, which is known to cause liver damage .
According to a 2016 study published in Hepatology , supplementation-related liver damage is on the rise, and green tea extract is a common ingredient in many liver damage-related supplements. (Another example is anabolic steroids. Don’t take steroids, kids.)
What can you do
If you are drinking green tea, feel free to continue drinking it. People with liver damage took concentrated supplements rather than tea.
Unfortunately, there is no surefire way to be sure your supplements are safe, although liver damage is rare. The chemicals in green tea that seem to cause harm are catechins, the same chemicals that are associated with weight loss and heart health benefits – in other words, this is the reason people take pills in the first place.
Supplements don’t have to be tested for safety, so taking herbs is always a joke of sorts. The European Food Safety Authority has issued a warning that people should avoid taking more than 800 milligrams per day of green tea catechins, which might be a good rule of thumb to follow.