How Green tea Figures in the Rosacea Picture

Green tea may be a safe and beneficial treatment for rosacea.
Now a cream made from an extract of freshly baked green tea leaves may be an effective treatment for a type of acne called papulopustular rosacea.
Women treated with the green tea extract cream had a 70% improvement in rosacea compared with women treated with a placebo says Tanweer Syed, MD, PhD, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of San Francisco, Calif., who developed the tea extract.
The study was presented at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting in New Orleans.
Typically, it starts with a tendency to blush -- rosy cheeks or redness and swelling in the center of the face which can progress to papulopustular rosacea.
Untreated, the condition can lead to chronic inflammation; the nose takes on the appearance of becoming red and enlarged.
Half of the women received the green tea extract cream and half received a placebo cream.
Clear, minimal or mild improvement of inflammation was seen in 70% of the women treated with the extract cream.
Syed says green tea extract cream was a natural choice for the rosacea because earlier research suggested that green tea extract has natural anti-aging and antiacne properties.
"The green tea has a soothing quality that helps the redness," Syed says.
The difference in this product versus others on the market, he says, is that the green tea leaves are picked and used within five hours, before turning dark and fermenting.
Guy Webster, MD, vice chairman of dermatology at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, says the study involved only a small number of participants and more work needs to be done before the cream can be marketed.
Tanweer Syed, MD, PhD, associate professor of dermatology, University of San Francisco, Calif.

Source: http://my.webmd.com/content/article/101/106044.htm