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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.
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"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 terrible " When I looked in the mirror, c was shocking. "
Jim, 50 years old at the time, was working to improve his lifestyle and lose weight, focusing on a healthy diet and regular exercise.
"My father had a heart attack at age 59 and he did not survive," Jim explains. "We lost a lot of things and I was determined to do everything in my power to take care of myself as much as possible so I did not miss anything."
But shortly after graduation from his son, Jim entered the hospital because of suspicion of liver injury.
In trying to identify the cause of Jim's liver injury, the doctors who treated him threw away alcohol.
"In 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. life, "Jim said.
He also excluded prescription drugs (he had not taken any at that time) and cigarettes, which 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 9659007] because I had heard that I could have some health benefits heart .
These supplements have gained popularity in recent years, often touted without rest 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 was waiting to attend a doctor badistant training course. "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 went into 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 thought how everything seemed to me black.This really materializes what is important in life.I did not think about projects in progress, 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. This is why the scientific body on how green tea supplements could 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 the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, has been monitoring green tea supplements for almost 20 years.
" People who take these more concentrated extracts have a higher risk ."
It is likely that A number of factors can make a person susceptible to damage by EGCG, including genetics, and the way supplements are used.
"As a general rule, people take these green tea extracts to lose weight and, as a result, often stop eating," says Dr. Bonkovsky.
"Studies have shown that fasting animals consume a much higher percentage of catechins than animals.Fat There may be other factors, such as other drugs, that are not present. other chemicals or the consumption of alcohol, which also play an important role in the modification. "
While millions of people safely take green tea supplements, reported at least 80 liver lesions linked to green tea supplements around the world . from lbaditude and jaundice to cases requiring liver transplantation
Among those who have had problems after taking green tea pills, there are teenage girls, like Madeline Papineau, from Ontario , Canada, age 17, who was injured. liver and kidney, and an 81-year-old woman diagnosed with acute toxic hepatitis.
A recent European Food Safety Authority study on the safety of green tea concluded that catechins in green tea drinks are "generally safe", but that, taken as supplements, doses of catechin equal to or greater than 800 mg per day "may cause health problems".
EFSA was not able to identify it. a safe dose based on available data and asking for more research.
The next day, Jim learned that he needed a liver transplant, but he was also surprised to learn that he had found a liver that suited him. " He was euphoric.The phone call that there was a liver for me made me hope that there would be something positive in this situation, "he says.
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 transplant, he consults a specialist liver and kidneys twice a year and suffers from chronic abdominal pain.
"My life was very active before, and now he is much more sedentary and I am fighting fatigue," he says.
This is an "extraordinary blessing", as he says so well that his superiors allow him to work from home. "You may need a 20 or 30 minute break at During the day, I can tell my supervisor that I am going to log out and come back for a while. "
Jim sued the American firm Vitacost, which sold the green tea supplement that he had taken. "I hope that make the decision to put a very strong warning label on the product, on the website, that people know before they buy it," he says.
Vitacost declined to comment on the case, but said, "We are taking Four years later, Jim is pondering how his life and that of his family have changed after taking a green tea supplement. [
] 19659002] "I was not expecting anything serious, I hoped to have maybe wasted my money or had it taken and that it would not work. This risk could take him, "he says.
" But the risk of liver damage is too high for anyone to take it. "
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