An unidentified patient visited her London doctor with nonspecific abdominal pains, nausea and joint pain, a new case study in the British Medical Journal Case Reports revealed.
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At first, doctors thought she had an urinary tract infection (UTI) and put her on a short course of antibiotics. The symptoms soon worsened, however, and she developed a case of jaundice – a condition that turned her skin and the whites of her eyes yellow. But now, doctors in the United Kingdom are warning of the hidden dangers of green tea after a teenager contracted acute hepatitis after drinking too much.
Hepatitis can be caused by a virus, or when the liver is exposed to harmful substances such as alcohol.
The girl, who is originally from Yemen but was not named in the report, said she had not recently consumed alcohol or drugs, including over-the-counter prescription drugs such as paracetamol, nor had she travelled overseas.
The 16-year-old said she had bought the Chinese green tea over the internet and had been drinking three cups a day for three months when she started feeling dizzy, nauseous and experiencing pain in her joints.
“I will never buy any online tea again or any weight loss pills”.
Celebrities who have been quoted endorsing drinking green tea include Lady Gaga, Johnny Depp, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Pattinson, Victoria Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow. It has been suggested that its antioxidants help with breast, lung and stomach cancers. The tea contained an ingredient called Camellia sinensis, which is a shrub whose leaves are used to create the tea.
“Ah, green tea-it turns out that the elixir of many people’s lives can be risky to your health”, the teen told BMJ Journal. Now I look back it was definitely due to the tea, I never took anything else and it all started happening after drinking the tea.
She had, however, ordered Chinese green tea over the internet.
The teen adds: “People should be more aware of what they are buying and the side effects”.
A teenage girl only wanted to lose weight by drinking tea.
“This raises the possibility that it is the addition of other chemicals causing hepatotoxicity, particularly in preparations used for weight loss”.
“There is potential for pesticide-induced hepatitis to exist, especially from less regulated products ordered from developing countries over the internet”, the report said. “The use of herbal remedies is underreported, the breadth of use is under-recognized by clinicians”.
‘Our case is a good illustration of this rare but recurring theme’.
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Some types of hepatitis will pass without causing permanent damage to the liver. It can lead to organ failure when it’s not promptly treated. How the body reacts to a certain chemical or a particular herb may not be the same for two people.
