Celebrities are powerful role models and are important to consumers related to their health due to the realization that certain people have access to the best of health and medical care. The public looks to celebrities for inspiration and hope as they struggle with questions of health and disease. Nevertheless, the quality of medical services that contribute to a celebrity is often questionable and misleading.
One currently popular folk remedy, tea, part of the dietary regimes of a number of Hollywood actresses and actors, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst, Lindsay Lohan, Madonna, Halle Berry, Meg Ryan, Anna Paquin, Cher, Barbara Streisand, Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon. Claims for its medicinal value, as far reaching as they are improbable, and include aging, anorexia, arthritis, atherosclerosis, cancer, constipation, diabetes, gallbladder disease, gout, hemorrhoids, hair growth and color restoration, headache, hypertension, HIV infection, immune enhancement, dyspepsia, increased vitality, treatment of alcohol and coffee, and reduce wrinkles.
Kombucha is a form of black tea and sugar, is fermented with a combination of bacterial and fungal cultures that form the “mushroom” on top of the fermentation vessel. It originated in China thousands of years ago, eventually spread to Europe and is becoming increasingly popular due to the use of celebrities and approval in the U.S. and the UK, many home brew recipes for the preparation of Kombucha can be found on the Internet, but he also produced and sold such companies such as Synergy drinks.
We have reviewed the literature on tea www.pubmed.gov and found 40 articles on Kombucha tea. Many of these studies originated in China or India, and consisted of testing the effects of tea, tea in rats or mice, several studies testing the impact on human cancer cells in vitro. Some positive effects were seen, but one study concluded that “Comparable effects and mechanisms in humans remains uncertain, as well as issues of health security because serious health problems and accidents have been reported and attributed to drinking tea.”
Most reports of human consumption of tea, tea case reports of toxicity, and in some cases, life-threatening. The greatest danger from the tea seems to arise in the “brew” versions that have become contaminated due to improper training and / or when the tea interacts with alcohol or drugs.
The observed side effects of tea consumption include hepatitis, dry mouth, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headache, shortness of breath, restless legs, abdominal pain, hypotension, and tachycardia. In most cases, patients have fully recovered after the cessation of tea and symptomatic treatment. However, there are case reports of serious and sometimes fatal cases of hepatic dysfunction and lactic acidosis.
In addition to oral administration, skin application of tea is also used as a local anesthetic. This use has led to cutaneous anthrax infection of the tea is stored in unsanitary conditions, such conditions that the tea preparation of potential medium for the growth of pathogenic microorganisms.
Because folk medicines, herbal remedies and dietary supplements, including Kombucha tea, are not considered foods or medicines, they are not usually estimated by USDA or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drink this tea in quantities typically consumed (about 4 ounces per day) can cause side effects in healthy people, but the potential health risks are unknown for those who have already existing health problems or those who drink excessive amounts of tea.
Recently, Whole Foods to remove the tea drinks from store shelves because they may contain alcohol as a product of fermentation. This fact was used as a possible explanation as to why alcohol monitoring actress Lindsay Lohan (AZ) bracelet was activated, even though she claims, compliance with court orders, not to consume alcoholic beverages.
