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Image source, Jim McCants
Jim McCants was taking green tea capsules in a middle-aged attempt to get his health back on track – but doctors say it led to him needing an emergency liver transplant, reports the BBC's Tristan Quinn.
It was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life, but Jim McCants looks back on his youngest child's high school graduation with mixed feelings. As he sat down next to his wife, Kathleen, in a college auditorium outside Dallas, Texas, she turned to look at him.
“She asked me, 'Are you feeling OK?'” Jim recalled. “I said, 'Yeah, I'm feeling OK. Why?' She said, 'Your face is yellow, your eyes are yellow and you look awful.' I was shocked when I looked in the mirror.”
This was a shock because Jim, who was 50 at the time, had been working to improve his lifestyle and lose weight, focusing on healthier eating and regular exercise.
“My dad had a heart attack and passed away at age 59,” Jim says. “He missed out on so much time with us, so I was determined to take care of my health as much as possible so I didn't miss out.”
However, shortly after his son's graduation, Jim was hospitalized with suspected liver damage.
Image source, Jim McCants
Doctors trying to determine the cause of Jim's liver damage determined that alcohol was not the cause.
“For the last 30 years, I've had about a six-pack of beer a year, but no wine, so alcohol hasn't been a big part of my life,” Jim says.
Doctors also ruled out prescription medication (he was not taking any at the time) and smoking (he had never smoked).
“Then my hepatologist asked more about it: 'What about over-the-counter supplements?'” Jim says.
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As part of his midlife fitness regime, Jim started taking green tea supplements because he had heard it was good for his heart. Green tea supplements have become increasingly popular in recent years, with enthusiastic online touting their antioxidant properties, weight loss benefits and cancer prevention properties.
“I was in good shape,” recalls Jim, who lives in Prosper, north of Dallas. “I was walking or running 30 to 60 minutes five or six days a week.” At the time, Jim was working as a financial manager but wanted to retrain as a physician assistant. “I was taking two or three classes at a time in the evenings and on weekends,” he recalls.
Jim had been taking green tea supplements for two to three months when he got sick, which is what is believed to have caused his liver damage, according to Jim's medical records. “It was a shock because I'd only heard about the benefits,” Jim recalls. “I hadn't heard about any problems.”
After being admitted to hospital, Jim went into “waiting mode,” waiting for a series of blood tests to reveal the severity of his liver damage. Then, about three weeks after his wife first noticed he looked unwell, one of the hepatologists gave him the news he had dreaded: “The doctors say you need a liver transplant. This has to happen quickly. You'll be fine in a few days, not a week.”
“This seemed like a very bleak situation to me. It really clarified what's important in life. I wasn't thinking about work projects. I was thinking about different people who are important to me for different reasons.”
Image source, Getty Images
Why might green tea supplements, at certain amounts, be harmful to some people? Scientists don't know for sure. Because green tea has been consumed for thousands of years, supplements made from concentrated forms of it are regulated as foods, not drugs, in the United States and Europe. This means that specific safety testing is not required, and the science on how green tea supplements affect our health is incomplete.
“If you drink green tea in moderate amounts, it's very safe,” says Herbert Bonkovsky, a professor and director of the liver service at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, who has tracked injuries associated with green tea supplements for nearly 20 years. “People who are taking more concentrated extracts are at greater risk.”
The concerns center on a potentially toxic compound called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), one of the most abundant natural antioxidant compounds in green tea. There are several factors that may make people more susceptible to EGCG, including genetics and how they use supplements.
“Typically, people take these green tea extracts in an attempt to lose weight, so they often go without food,” Dr. Bonkovsky explains. “We know from animal studies that fasted animals absorb much more catechins than obese animals. Other factors, such as other drugs, other chemicals, or alcohol intake, may also be important as modifiers.”
Antioxidants
Antioxidants are a group of vitamins and other compounds that, for many, have miraculous properties and help drive a global market for all kinds of supplements that is now worth more than £100bn a year.
Antioxidants fight off “free radicals,” molecules that are produced in cells when they turn oxygen and food into energy. Just as oxygen and water can corrode iron, too many free radicals can damage cells.
In the 1950s, Professor Denham Harman theorized that free radicals could accelerate ageing in the body and cause disease.
But some scientists now believe that certain levels of free radicals may be beneficial to human health, and argue that the orthodox view of the past half century that antioxidants are purely good is outdated.
While millions of people safely take green tea supplements, there have been at least 80 reported cases of liver damage associated with green tea supplements worldwide, ranging from fatigue and jaundice to cases requiring liver transplants. Those affected by taking green tea pills include teenagers like 17-year-old Madeleine Papineau from Ontario, Canada, who suffered liver and kidney damage, and an 81-year-old woman who was diagnosed with toxic acute hepatitis.
The day after being told he needed a liver transplant, Jim was surprised to hear that a match had been found. “I was ecstatic. Getting the call gave me hope that something good could happen down the road,” he said.
The liver transplant saved Jim's life, but four years later he still has serious health issues, including kidney disease, which may require dialysis or a transplant in the future. Jim sees a liver and kidney specialist twice a year and suffers from chronic abdominal pain.
“My life used to be quite active, but now I lead a more sedentary lifestyle and suffer from fatigue,” he says.
He says it's a “great blessing” that his boss allows him to work from home: “Maybe I need to take 20 or 30 minutes to lie down during the day. I can just tell my boss I'm going offline and I'll be back.”
Jim is suing Vitacost, the American company that sold him the green tea supplement. “I hope they decide to put very strong warning labels on their products and on their website to let people know before they buy,” he said.
Vitacost declined to comment on the lawsuit but said in a statement that “we take the safety of Vitacost brand supplements very seriously and stand behind the quality of our products.”
Now, four years later, Jim reflects on how taking green tea supplements has changed his and his family's lives.
“I didn't think it would do any harm. I was prepared to waste my money, to take the medicine and have it not help me in any way. I'm willing to take that risk,” he says. “But the risk of my liver failing is too big a risk for anybody to take.”
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