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This should have been one of the happiest days of his life. But Jim McCants looks up at the graduation of his youngest son in high school, with mixed feelings.
When he sat next to his wife Cathleen in the university auditorium, near Dallas, Texas, he came back to watch him.
"She said," Do you feel good? "Jim recalls." I said, "Yes, I feel good, why?" "Your face is tá yellow, your eyes are yellow, you are awful. " When I looked in the mirror, it was shocking. "
Jim, 50 years old at the time, was striving to improve his lifestyle and lose weight, focusing on a healthy diet and exercise regular.
"My father had a heart attack at age 59 and he did not survive," says Jim. "We lost a lot of things and I was determined to do everything that was in my power to take care of me as much as possible, so that nothing is missing. "
But shortly after graduation from his son, Jim entered the hospital because of suspicion
In trying to identify the cause of Jim's liver injury, the doctors who treated him threw alcohol.
"Over the last thirty years, I have drunk perhaps a pack of six beers a year, and no wine, which is why alcohol has not been present in most of my life", said Jim. [19659003] He also threw prescription drugs (he had not taken any at that time) and cigarettes, something he had never done before.
"Then my hepatologist asked a series of questions about over-the-counter supplements," says Jim.
As part of his life, taking care of his health at an advanced age, Jim had started taking a green tea supplement [1 9659004] because I had heard that he could have cardiac benefits .
These supplements have gained popularity in recent years, often being the subject of fierce promotion online for their antioxidant benefits and their supposed ability to help lose weight and prevent cancer .
"I felt good back then," recalls Jim, who lives in Prosper, north of Dallas.
"I walked or ran between 30 and 60 minutes, five or six days a week."
I worked as a finance director, but I hoped to train myself as a doctor 's badistant. "I took two or three clbades at once in the evenings and weekends," he recalls.
He took the green tea supplement for two or three months when he became ill . According to Jim's medical record, this is the presumed cause of his liver damage. "It was shocking because I had only heard about the benefits," Jim recalls. "I had heard of no problem."
After entering the hospital, Jim entered a "queue", waiting for the results of a series of blood tests to establish the severity of his liver injury.
Then, near three weeks after his wife noticed for the first time that he looked sick, one of his doctors told him announced that he was afraid : "She said that she needed a liver transplant, this had to be done quickly and there was only a few days left, not even a week."
Jim was stunned.
"At that moment, I realized how dark it all seemed to me, it really materializes what's important in life, I did not think about projects going on, I thought about people who were important for me for different reasons. "
What about green tea supplements that could harm some doses to some people? Scientists do not know for sure.
Green tea has been drinking for thousands of years. Supplements consist of a concentrated form and are regulated in the United States and Europe as a food and not as a medicine.
This means that no specific safety test has been required. Therefore, the scientific body on how green tea supplements might affect our health is incomplete.
"If you take a modest amount of green tea, you are in a safe situation," says the professor. Herbert Bonkovsky, director of liver services at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, has been dealing with green tea injuries for almost 20 years.
" people who take these more concentrated extracts pose a higher risk ."
The concern is focused on a potentially toxic ingredient called epigallocatechin-3-gallate or EGCG, the most abundant natural compounds with antioxidant properties in green tea, called catechins.
It is likely that a number of factors can make a person susceptible to being damaged by EGCG, including by genetics. and the way supplements are used.
"People usually take these green tea extracts to lose weight and, as a result, they often stop eating," says Dr. Bonkovsky.
"Studies have shown that fasting animals absorb a much higher percentage of catechins than fatty animals, and there may be other factors, such as other 39; other chemicals or alcohol consumption, which also play an important role as modifying factors. "
Although millions of people safely take green tea supplements, at least 80 cases of liver injury related to green tea supplements worldwide ranging from lbaditude and jaundice to cases requiring liver transplantation.
Among those who had problems after taking tea pills. Green can be considered a teenager, like 17-year-old Madeline Papineau of Ontario, Canada, who developed a liver and kidney injury, and an 81-year-old woman diagnosed with acute toxic hepatitis.
Recent research conducted by the European Food Safety Authority on green tea Safety concluded that green tea drink catechins are "generally safe", but Catechin doses greater than or equal to 800 mg per day "can cause health problems."
EFSA was not able to identify a safe dose given the available data and requested further investigation.
The day after they announced to Jim that he needed a liver transplant, he was surprised to learn that they had found him a suitable liver. "I was delighted, the phone call that there was a liver for me made me hope that there would be something positive in this situation," says- he.
A liver transplant saved Jim's life . But four years later, he still has serious health problems, including kidney disease that may require dialysis and transplantation in the future. He meets liver and kidney specialists twice a year and suffers from chronic abdominal pain.
"My life was very active and now I am much more sedentary and I am tired," he says.
This is a "tremendous blessing", as he says, that his managers allow him to work from home. "I might need a break of 20 or 30 minutes in the day, I can tell my manager that I will disconnect and that I will come back for a moment."
Jim sued the American company Vitacost, which sold the green tea supplement it took. "I hope that they will make the decision to put a very strong warning label on the product, on the website, that people know before you buy it," did he declare.
Vitacost declined to comment on the case, but said: "We take the safety of our Vitacost brand supplements very seriously and support the quality of our products."
Four years later, Jim reflects on the changes in his life and that of his family after taking a tea supplement. Green
"I was not expecting anything serious, I hoped maybe I would have wasted my money or that I would have taken it and that it would n & # 39; 39 would have no effect. " This risk could be badumed, "he says," the affected liver is too high for someone to take it. "
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